A Pilot Randomized Comparative Effectiveness Clinical Trial of Buprenorphine vs. Methadone for the Treatment of Opioid Dependence in Pregnancy.

Detailed Summary

The incidence of opioid dependence in pregnancy increased over the last decade from 1.2 to 5.8 per 1,000 hospital births per year.1 While methadone is the current, standard treatment for opioid dependent (OD) pregnant women, buprenorphine recently emerged as an alternative. In a recent clinical trial (MOTHER), buprenorphine was associated with superior neonatal outcomes such as shorter duration of treatment for neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS) compared to methadone. However, buprenorphine was also associated with greater study discontinuation (33% vs. 18%) and illicit opioid use (33% vs. 23%) compared to methadone. Treatment dropout often leads to relapse and resumption of high-risk behaviors, overshadowing any short-term improvement in neonatal outcomes. Therefore, The goal of this K23 proposal is to conduct a pilot study to establish the feasibility and acceptability of a randomized comparative effectiveness clinical trial comparing office-based buprenorphine vs. federally licensed methadone programs for the treatment of OD pregnant women. A pilot study is critical to develop the outcome measures, assessment tools and participant tracking techniques necessary for a future, large-scale comparative effectiveness clinical trial. An examination of feasibility and acceptability will also allow use to characterize the subpopulations of OD pregnant women willing to participate in treatment randomization, identify patient and provider characteristics associated with established treatment preferences and inform the development of strategies to improve participation and enhance the generalizability of the future large-scale clinical trial.

Study Details

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Interventions