Buprenorphine, Pain, and Opioid Use in Patients Taking High-Dose Long-Term Opioids: A Randomized Clinical Trial.

ABSTRACT:

Importance

Guidelines recommend dose reduction or discontinuation of long-term opioid therapy when harm outweighs benefit, but strategies to help patients do so are limited.

Objective

To test optionally switching to buprenorphine as a strategy for improving pain and reducing opioids among patients prescribed high-dose, full agonist long-term opioid therapy.

Design, setting, and participants

In this pragmatic, multisite, 12-month randomized clinical trial with masked outcome assessment, patients treated at Veterans Affairs primary care clinics were recruited from October 2017 to March 2021, with follow-up completed June 2022. Eligible patients had moderate to severe chronic pain despite high-dose opioid therapy (≥70 mg/d for at least 3 months). Patients were randomized

SUBMITTER: Becker WC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11833656 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature