EFFECTS OF ADDING BEHAVIORAL TREATMENT TO OPIOID DETOXIFICATION WITH BUPRENORPHINE

This trial assessed whether behavioral treatment improves outcome duri ng a 26-week outpatient opioid detoxification. Thirty-nine opioid-depe ndent adults were assigned randomly to a buprenorphine dose-taper comb ined with either behavioral or standard treatment. Behavioral treatmen t included (a) a voucher incentive program for providing opioid-free u rine samples and engaging in verifiable therapeutic activities and (b) the community reinforcement approach, a multicomponent behavioral tre atment. Standard treatment included lifestyle counseling. Fifty-three percent of the patients receiving behavioral treatment completed treat ment, versus 20% receiving standard treatment. The percentage of patie nts achieving 4, 8, 12, and 16 weeks of continuous opioid abstinence w ere 68, 47, 26, and 11 for the behavioral group and 55, 15, 5, and 0 f or the standard group, respectively. Behavioral treatment improved out comes during outpatient detoxification.