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Abstract
Patients with opioid addiction who receive prescription opioids for treatment of nonmalignant chronic pain present a therapeutic challenge. Fifty-four participants with chronic pain and opioid addiction were randomized to receive methadone or buprenorphine/naloxone. At the 6-month follow-up examination, 26 (48.1%) participants who remained in the study noted a 12.75% reduction in pain (P = 0.043), and no participants in the methadone group compared to 5 in the buprenorphine group reported illicit opioid use (P = 0.039). Other differences between the two conditions were not found. Long-term, low-dose methadone or buprenorphine/naloxone treatment produced analgesia in participants with chronic pain and opioid addiction.
Acknowledgments
Trial Registration: clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT00879996. This study was supported, in part, by a grant (R03 DA 029768) from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (R.D.B., A.M.N.). The authors thank Shaun S. Bath, MD, Alisa Li, Tenzing Namgyal Lama, and Gaurang Joshi for their assistance in data collection, and Andy Danzo for his editing assistance in preparation of the manuscript.
