Accounting for the uncounted: Physical and affective distress in individuals dropping out of oral naltrexone treatment for opioid use disorder

Multiple strategies are needed to address the current opioid epidemic and improve response to approved medication assisted treatments (MAT) for opioid use disorder (OUD) (Volkow, 2018). While buprenorphine, methadone, and naltrexone all have their strengths and weaknesses, the great potential of naltrexone, in particular, has been undercut by difficulties with induction and retention (Kirchmayer et al., 2002; Larney et al., 2014; Sullivan et al., 2017). The advent of extended-release injectable naltrexone (XR-NTX) held promise for improving adherence, but recent reviews indicate that adherence to XR-NTX remains disappointing across several populations; 1 is the modal number of injections in community settings (Jarvis et al., 2018; Morgan et al., 2018).

Source: Drug and Alcohol Dependence - October 4, 2018 Category: Addiction Authors: Kathleen M. Carroll, Charla Nich, Tami L. Frankforter, Sarah W. Yip, Brian D. Kiluk, Elise E. DeVito, Mehmet Sofuoglu Tags: Full length article Source Type: research