Outpatient vs hospital methadone detoxification: an experimental comparison. Effects of adding behavioral treatment to opioid detoxification with buprenorphine. Contingency management interventions: effects on treatment outcome during methadone detoxification. Abstinence incentive effects in a short-term outpatient detoxification program. A randomized trial of one-day vs. three-day buprenorphine inpatient detoxification protocols for heroin dependence. Facilitating outpatient treatment entry following detoxification for injection drug use: a multisite test of three interventions. A multi-center randomized trial of buprenorphine-naloxone versus clonidine for opioid detoxification: findings from the National Institute on Drug Abuse Clinical Trials Network. Anesthesia-assisted vs buprenorphine- or clonidine-assisted heroin detoxification and naltrexone induction: a randomized trial. Reinforcement-based therapy: 12-month evaluation of an outpatient drug-free treatment for heroin abusers.
This study compares the effectiveness and cost of hospital narcotic detoxificationand outpatient narcotic detoxification using methadone. Forty heroin addicts seeking narcotic withdrawal were randomly assigned to treatment groups. Methadone treatment was planned for no longer than 10 days while psychiatric supportive services were made available to continue as needed. The results suggest little benefit from either treatment approach and there was no significant differences between the treatments. Only a few patients achieved a drug-free state, and of those who did, all but one had returned to use of narcotics within 2 months. The data indicate that detoxification using methadone is a palliative procedure. The cost of outpatient detoxification can be accomplished for approximately one-tenth the cost of inhospital treatment without significantlyaltering the effectiveness of treatment. This trial assessed whether behavioral treatment improves outcome during a 26-week outpatient opioid detoxification. Thirty-nine opioid-dependent adults were assigned randomly to a buprenorphine dose-taper combined with either behavioral or standard treatment. Behavioral treatment included (a) a voucher incentive program for providing opioid-free urine samples and engaging in verifiable therapeutic activities and (b) the community reinforcement approach, a multicomponent behavioral treatment. Standard treatment included lifestyle counseling. Fifty-three percent of the patients receiving behavioral treatment completed treatment, versus 20% receiving standard treatment. The percentage of patients achieving 4, 8, 12, and 16 weeks of continuous opioid abstinence were 68, 47, 26, and 11 for the behavioral group and 55, 15, 5, and 0 for the standard group, respectively. Behavioral treatment improved outcomes during outpatient detoxification. We examined the effectiveness of a contingency management program in preventing relapse to illicit opiate use and increasing treatment retention during outpatient methadone detoxification treatment. Twenty male opiate addicts were randomly assigned to an experimental or control group. Following a 3-week methadone stabilization period, men in both groups received identical gradual methadone dose reductions during Weeks 4 through 9 and were maintained on placebo during Weeks 10 through 13. Beginning in Week 4, control patients received $5.00 for providing a specimen twice weekly. Experimental patients received $10.00 and a take home methadone dose for each opiate-free urine specimen but forfeited the incentives and participated in more intensive clinic procedures when specimens were opiate positive. The contingency management procedure slowed the rate of relapse to illicit opiate use. Experimental patients provided significantly more opiate-free urines during the methadone dose reduction in Weeks 4 through 9 than control patients, although the difference between groups was no longer significant during placebo administration in Weeks 10 through 13. In addition, the contingency management program improved treatment retention and reduced symptom complaints during the detoxification. The usefulness and limitations of contingency management procedures for outpatient methadone detoxification are discussed. Despite being widely available, outpatient detoxification has limited efficacy as a stand-alone treatment. This study examined whether abstinence-contingent incentives would improve outcomes for patients entering outpatient opiate detoxification. Participants (N = 211) received a 100 US dollars voucher on the last day of detoxification either contingent on opiate and cocaine abstinence or noncontingently. Urine samples were collected at intake, on Wednesday, Friday (the last day of detoxification), and the following Monday. Among contingent-voucher participants, 31% were drug-free on Friday compared with 18% of noncontingent controls (Z = 2.4, p < .05). Few (12-13%) participants tested negative on Monday. Results support the ability of vouchers to produce modest improvements in abstinence initiation rates during brief detoxification but suggest that additional interventions are needed to sustain improvements.
                Copyright 2004 APA. Detoxification from opioids remains an important first step in the treatment of many patients with opioid dependence. Several pharmacologic regimens have been used for opioid detoxification. In the United States, the partial mu-opioid agonist, buprenorphine (BUP) is the most recently approved pharmacotherapy for opioid detoxification and replacement. The literature in recent years has described detoxification protocols using a single high dose of BUP and a three-day BUP regimen. In many settings, such as drug-free programs, a single-dose detoxification protocol would be of significant benefit. There have been no prior studies comparing one-day and three-day BUP-assisted opioid withdrawal. In this pilot study, we conducted an open-label, randomized trial of one-day vs. three-day BUP/naloxone sublingual tablet-assisted opioid withdrawal. Twenty patients from a therapeutic community treatment program were randomly assigned to receive either 32 mg sublingual BUP over one hour (one-day group), or 32 mg sublingual BUP over three days (three-day group). Nine of 10 subjects (90 percent) in each group completed seven days in the detoxification protocol. There was no statistically significant difference between the two groups in all other outcome variables, including retention in the treatment program, intensity of withdrawal signs and symptoms, amounts of adjunct medications used, and ability to produce opiate-free urine. This study further validates the feasibility of the single high dose of BUP as a rapid detoxification method. A multisite, randomized trial within the National Drug Abuse Treatment Clinical Trials Network (CTN) was conducted to test 3 interventions to enhance treatment initiation following detoxification: (a) a single session, therapeutic alliance intervention (TA) added to usual treatment; (b) a 2-session, counseling and education, HIV/HCV risk reduction intervention (C&E), added to usual treatment; and (c) treatment as usual (TAU) only. Injection drug users (n=632) enrolled in residential detoxification at 8 community treatment programs were randomized to 1 of the 3 study conditions. TA participants reported entering outpatient treatment sooner and in greater numbers than TAU participants. Reported treatment entry for C&E fell between TA and TAU with no significant differences between C&E and the other conditions. There were no differences among the interventions in retention, as measured by weeks of outpatient treatment for all participants who reported treatment entry. Alliance building interventions appear to be effective in facilitating transfer from detoxification to outpatient treatment, but additional treatment engagement interventions may be necessary to improve retention.
                Copyright (c) 2009 APA, all rights reserved. The clinical effectiveness of buprenorphine-naloxone (bup-nx) and clonidine for opioid detoxification in in-patient and out-patient community treatment programs was investigated in the first studies of the National Institute of Drug Abuse Clinical Trials Network.
                Diagnostic and Statistical Manual version IV (DSM IV)-diagnosed opioid-dependent individuals seeking short-term treatment were randomly assigned, in a 2 : 1 ratio favoring bup-nx, to a 13-day detoxification using bup-nx or clonidine.
                A total of 113 in-patients (77 bup-nx, 36 clonidine) and 231 out-patients (157 bup-nx, 74 clonidine) participated. Supportive interventions included appropriate ancillary medications and standard counseling procedures guided by a self-help handbook. The criterion for treatment success was defined as the proportion of participants in each condition who were both retained in the study for the entire duration and provided an opioid-free urine sample on the last day of clinic attendance. Secondary outcome measures included use of ancillary medications, number of side effects reported and withdrawal and craving ratings.
                A total of 59 of the 77 (77%) in-patients assigned to the bup-nx condition achieved the treatment success criterion compared to eight of the 36 (22%) assigned to clonidine, whereas 46 of the 157 (29%) out-patients assigned to the bup-nx condition achieved the treatment success criterion, compared to four of the 74 (5%) assigned to clonidine.
                The benefits of bup-nx for opioid detoxification are supported and illustrate important ways in which clinical research can be conducted in community treatment programs. Rapid opioid detoxification with opioid antagonist induction using general anesthesia has emerged as an expensive, potentially dangerous, unproven approach to treat opioid dependence.
                To determine how anesthesia-assisted detoxification with rapid antagonist induction for heroin dependence compared with 2 alternative detoxification and antagonist induction methods.
                A total of 106 treatment-seeking heroin-dependent patients, aged 21 through 50 years, were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 inpatient withdrawal treatments over 72 hours followed by 12 weeks of outpatient naltrexone maintenance with relapse prevention psychotherapy. This randomized trial was conducted between 2000 and 2003 at Columbia University Medical Center's Clinical Research Center. Outpatient treatment occurred at the Columbia University research service for substance use disorders. Patients were included if they had an American Society of Anesthesiologists physical status of I or II, were without major comorbid psychiatric illness, and were not dependent on other drugs or alcohol.
                Anesthesia-assisted rapid opioid detoxification with naltrexone induction, buprenorphine-assisted rapid opioid detoxification with naltrexone induction, and clonidine-assisted opioid detoxification with delayed naltrexone induction.
                Withdrawal severity scores on objective and subjective scales; proportions of patients receiving naltrexone, completing inpatient detoxification, and retained in treatment; proportion of opioid-positive urine specimens.
                Mean withdrawal severities were comparable across the 3 treatments. Compared with clonidine-assisted detoxification, the anesthesia- and buprenorphine-assisted detoxification interventions had significantly greater rates of naltrexone induction (94% anesthesia, 97% buprenorphine, and 21% clonidine), but the groups did not differ in rates of completion of inpatient detoxification. Treatment retention over 12 weeks was not significantly different among groups with 7 of 35 (20%) retained in the anesthesia-assisted group, 9 of 37 (24%) in the buprenorphine-assisted group, and 3 of 34 (9%) in the clonidine-assisted group. Induction with 50 mg of naltrexone significantly reduced the risk of dropping out (odds ratio, 0.28; 95% confidence interval, 0.15-0.51). There were no significant group differences in proportions of opioid-positive urine specimens. The anesthesia procedure was associated with 3 potentially life-threatening adverse events.
                These data do not support the use of general anesthesia for heroin detoxification and rapid opioid antagonist induction. This controlled study examined the efficacy of reinforcement-based therapy (RBT) for producing enhanced abstinence outcomes over 12 months in opioid-dependent patients exiting a brief residential detoxification. Patients were randomly assigned upon completing their medically managed taper (i.e., detoxification) to RBT (N=66) or usual care (N=64) referral to community treatment programs. The 6-month RBT program offered an array of abstinence-based incentives including rent payment for recovery housing, program-led recreational activities and skills training for procuring employment. RBT produced significantly higher self-report and urinalysis-confirmed rates of abstinence from opioids and cocaine relative to usual care at 1 (42% versus 15%) and 3 (38% versus 17%) months during treatment but not at 6 or 12 months after enrollment. The RBT but not the usual care group showed significant increases in the number of days worked and the amount of legal income earned at 3, 6 and 12 months. The results of this randomized study suggest that an intensive reinforcement-based therapy that includes abstinence-based recovery housing is a promising approach; however, further research is needed to determine the role of treatment intensity and the specific efficacy of RBT's component parts.
This review demonstrates that there is no good available research to guide the clinician about the outcomes or cost-effectiveness of inpatient or outpatient approaches to opioid detoxification.