Buprenorphine-Naloxone Puerto Rico Study Highlighted in NIDA NewsScan

FRI is pleased to announce that the results of a collaborative study between researchers in Puerto Rico and the Social Research Center, including Timothy W. Kinlock, Ph.D., Michael S. Gordon, D.P.A., and Robert P. Schwartz, M.D., were recently published in a NIDA NewsScan. This study tested whether treatment with buprenorphine-naloxone could feasibly be initiated with soon-to-be-released opioid-addicted prisoners, and whether the treatment would continue in the community and decrease drug use and criminal activities. Of 45 prisoners who began treatment, 42 continued treatment until release; of these 42, 35 continued treatment in the community by one-month post-release. Key findings indicated that these 35 treatment completers had significantly greater reductions in heroin and cocaine use as well as a reduction in criminal activities compared with those who did not complete the program. Although the authors caution that this was a small feasibility study without a control group and that larger-scale future studies are needed, they believe that “the short-term outcomes of this study suggest that treatment with buprenorphine-naloxone may significantly contribute to reductions in readdiction to heroin and in criminal activities among re-entering male offenders.