A PILOT-STUDY OF PRIMARY-CARE-BASED BUPRENORPHINE MAINTENANCE FOR HEROIN DEPENDENCE

The treatment of heroin dependence with opioid maintenance has traditi onally employed methadone and more recently buprenorphine administered in traditional drug treatment settings. In this Pilot study we evalua ted buprenorphine maintenance fur the treatment of heroin dependence i na program administered by primary-care providers in a primary-care se tting. Seven patients were admitted to this nonblinded open-label pilo t study and were offered 6 months oi primary-care-based buprenorphine maintenance. Buprenorphine was administered in doses of 16 mg on Monda y and Wednesday and 32 mg on Friday. Patients were seen weekly by prim ary-care providers and attended self-help meetings. Of the seven patie nts admitted to the study, five (71%) completed the 6-month pilot stud y and two (29%) were removed from the study. Urine toxicology data sho wed that the majority of urines tested were clear of opioids in four o ut of five patients who remained in treatment. These results suggest t hat primary-care-based opioid maintenance using buprenorphine shows pr omise as a new approach to the treatment of heroin dependence.