Researchers say a new treatment that is less intrusive and more accessible than what has been offered to patients struggling with opioid addiction has been shown to be just as effective.
Currently, patients with opioid use disorder can be asked to show up at a pharmacy every day for two to three months to begin treatment with methadone or morphine, which have to be taken under close supervision.
A new study published today in the American Journal of Psychiatry shows it is possible to offer a more flexible treatment at home without reducing the chance of success.
The Public Health Agency of Canada reports more than 53-hundred Canadians died from an opioid overdose between January and September of 2021, which amounts to about 20 deaths per day.
In 2018, before the COVID-19 pandemic, there were 12 deaths per day.
The new treatment, developed in a clinical trial through the Canadian Research Initiative in Substance Misuse, is based on prescribing buprenorphine-naloxone, also known by the commercial name Suboxone.
Between October of 2017 and March of 2020, the clinical research team recruited more than 270 volunteers in seven hospitals in Quebec, Ontario, Alberta, and British Columbia.
All were struggling with opioid addiction from either prescription or illegally produced drugs such as morphine, oxycodone, or fentanyl.
Patients were randomly divided into two groups, with half receiving methadone under close supervision in a pharmacy and the other half receiving Suboxone, which could be taken mostly at home.
Both groups were asked to undergo treatment for 24 weeks.
Researchers recommended that after the first two weeks, patients could continue the treatment with Suboxone unsupervised at home for one week _ requiring just one visit to the pharmacy.
Eventually, pharmacy visits were spaced out to two per month.