Supervised dosing with a long-acting opioid medication in the management of opioid dependence.

CONCLUSIONS: Take-home medication strategies are attractive to treatment services due to lower costs, and place less restrictions on clients, but it is unknown whether they may be associated with increased risk of diversion and unsanctioned use of medication. There is uncertainty about the effects of supervised dosing compared with unsupervised medication due to the low and very low quality of the evidence for the primary outcomes of interest for this review. Data on defined secondary outcomes were similarly limited. More research comparing supervised and take-home medication strategies is needed to support decisions on the relative effectiveness of these strategies. The trials should be designed and conducted with high quality and over a longer follow-up period to support comparison of strategies at different stages of treatment. In particular, there is a need for studies assessing in more detail the risk of diversion and safety outcomes of using supervised OST to manage opioid dependence. PMID: 28447766 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
Source: Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews - Category: Journals (General) Authors: Tags: Cochrane Database Syst Rev Source Type: research