FRIDAY, July 13 (HealthDay News) -- U.S. researchers are
launching the first large-scale national study to evaluate a
treatment for addiction to prescription opioid painkillers, such as
The study, which is funded by the U.S. National Institute on
Several of the study sites are located in rural areas with especially high rates of prescription painkiller abuse.
The patients will receive Suboxone for one month at the start of the study. The dose will then be tapered off as part of a detoxification process. Patients who go two months without abusing painkillers will have completed the study.
Patients who relapse may be eligible to go back on Suboxone for three more months, with their dose tapered off in the fourth month. They would then be followed for two months.
Half of the patients in the study will also be enrolled in an intensive individualized drug counseling program when they get their Suboxone prescriptions. The other half of the patients will receive a brief drug counseling session from their doctors.
"Opioid analgesics were designed to help people in pain, and we
want to be sure that those who require them for legitimate reasons
can continue to effectively manage their pain," NIDA director Dr.
Nora D. Volkow said in a prepared statement. "However, we must also
recognize the risk of addiction to
The 2005 U.S. National Survey on Drug Use and Health found that 2.2 million people aged 12 and older reported being new nonmedical users of pain relievers. That number is greater than the number of new marijuana users (2.1 million).
"Addiction to prescription painkillers has rapidly become a major problem, for which effective treatment strategies are sorely needed," Dr. Marc Gourevitch, professor of medicine, director of the division of general medicine, and principal investigator for the NYU/Bellevue site, said in a prepared statement.
More information
The U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse has more about prescription drug abuse and addiction.
