Long Term Suboxone™ Emotional Reactivity as Measured by Automatic Detection in Speech.
Long term suboxone™ emotional reactivity as measured by automatic detection in speech.
PLoS One. 2013; 8(7): e69043
Hill E, Han D, Dumouchel P, Dehak N, Quatieri T, Moehs C, Oscar-Berman M, Giordano J, Simpatico T, Blum K
Addictions to illicit drugs are among the nation’s most critical public health and societal problems. The current opioid prescription epidemic and the need for buprenorphine/naloxone (Suboxone®; SUBX) as an opioid maintenance substance, and its growing street diversion provided impetus to determine affective states (“true ground emotionality”) in long-term SUBX patients. Toward the goal of effective monitoring, we utilized emotion-detection in speech as a measure of “true” emotionality in 36 SUBX patients compared to 44 individuals from the general population (GP) and 33 members of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). Other less objective studies have investigated emotional reactivity of heroin, methadone and opioid abstinent patients. These studies indicate that current opioid users have abnormal emotional experience, characterized by heightened response to unpleasant stimuli and blunted response to pleasant stimuli. However, this is the first study to our knowledge to evaluate “true ground” emotionality in long-term buprenorphine/naloxone combination (Suboxone™). We found in long-term SUBX patients a significantly flat affect (p<0.01), and they had less self-awareness of being happy, sad, and anxious compared to both the GP and AA groups. We caution definitive interpretation of these seemingly important results until we compare the emotional reactivity of an opioid abstinent control using automatic detection in speech. These findings encourage continued research strategies in SUBX patients to target the specific brain regions responsible for relapse prevention of opioid addiction. HubMed – Methadone
Acute pain management for patients under opioid maintenance treatment: what physicians do in emergency departments?
Eur J Emerg Med. 2013 Jul 17;
Bounes V, Jouanjus E, Roussin A, Lapeyre-Mestre M
The aim of this study was to analyze the current practices on acute pain management of patients under opioid maintenance treatment (OMT), that is, buprenorphine or methadone. A total of 706 physicians were solicited through a national network to answer a survey about pain perception and analgesic strategies. Among the prescribers, 323 (46%) answered the survey: 131 (40%) physicians estimated that patients under OMT when exposed to an acute painful event feel more pain than other patients and 170 (53%) estimated that the patients felt the same amount of pain. Use of WHO step 1 analgesics was reported by 283 (88%) prescribers [264 (82%) prescribers reported use of paracetamol and 178 (55%) reported use of NSAIDs]. Among the second-line analgesic drugs, the WHO step 3 analgesics (mainly morphine) were the most commonly reported [221 physicians (68%)]. Overall, the results demonstrate the misconceptions of physicians on the pain tolerance of patients under OMT. Clinical studies and evidence-based guidelines are necessary to improve the therapeutic strategies for such patients in an emergency setting.
HubMed – Methadone
Reinforcing integrated psychiatric service attendance in an opioid-agonist program: A randomized and controlled trial.
Drug Alcohol Depend. 2013 Jul 15;
Kidorf M, Brooner RK, Gandotra N, Antoine D, King VL, Peirce J, Ghazarian S
The benefits of integrating substance abuse and psychiatric care may be limited by poor service utilization. This randomized clinical trial evaluated the efficacy of using contingency management to improve utilization of psychiatric services co-located and integrated within a community-based methadone maintenance treatment program.Opioid-dependent outpatients (n=125) with any current psychiatric disorder were randomly assigned to: (1) reinforced on-site integrated care (ROIC), with vouchers (worth $ 25.00) contingent on full adherence to each week of scheduled psychiatric services; or (2) standard on-site integrated care (SOIC). All participants received access to the same schedule of psychiatrist and mental health counseling sessions for 12-weeks.ROIC participants attended more overall psychiatric sessions at month 1 (M=7.53 vs. 3.97, p<.001), month 2 (M=6.31 vs. 2.81, p<.001), and month 3 (M=5.71 vs. 2.44, p<.001). Both conditions evidenced reductions in psychiatric distress (p<.001) and similar rates of drug-positive urine samples. No differences in study retention were observed.These findings suggest that contingency management can improve utilization of psychiatric services scheduled within an on-site and integrated treatment model. Delivering evidenced-based mental health counseling, or modifying the contingency plan to include illicit drug use, may be required to facilitate greater changes in psychiatric and substance abuse outcomes. HubMed – Methadone
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