Clonidine Maintenance Prolongs Opioid Abstinence and Decouples Stress From Craving in Daily Life: A Randomized Controlled Trial With Ecological Momentary Assessment.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

The authors tested whether clonidine blocks stress-induced seeking of heroin and cocaine. The study was also intended to confirm translational findings from a rat model of drug relapse by using ecological momentary assessment of patients' stress to test hypotheses about clonidine's behavioral mechanism of action.

Method

The authors conducted a randomized double-blind placebo-controlled clinical trial with 208 opioid-dependent patients at an outpatient buprenorphine clinic. The 118 participants (57%) who maintained abstinence during weeks 5-6 were continued on buprenorphine and randomly assigned to receive clonidine (N=61) or placebo (N=57) for 14 weeks. Urine was tested thrice weekly. Lapse was defined as any opioid-positive or missed urine test, and relapse as two

SUBMITTER: Kowalczyk WJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6233893 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature