Medically assisted recovery from opiate dependence within the context of the UK drug strategy: Methadone and Suboxone (buprenorphine–naloxone) patients compared

This article describes a small, naturalistic comparison of the efficacy of the two most commonly prescribed opiate substitute medications in the UK—methadone hydrochloride (methadone oral solution) and Suboxone (buprenorphine–naloxone sublingual tablets)—for reducing current heroin users’ (n=34) days of heroin use, and preventing short-term abstainers (n=37) from relapsing to regular heroin use. All patients had been prescribed either methadone or Suboxone for maintenance for 6months prior to intake. Results showed that when controlling for a number of patient-level covariates, both methadone and Suboxone significantly reduced current users’ days of heroin use between the 90days prior to intake and at the 8-month follow-up, with Suboxone yielding a significantly larger magnitude redu…