Norwegian Centre for Addiction Research, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway,
Department of R&D in Mental Health, Akershus University Hospital, Loerenskog, Norway,
Eur Addict Res. 2019;25(6):303-309. doi: 10.1159/000501931. Epub 2019 Jul 24.
Opioid maintenance treatment (OMT) is highly available in Norway, but only 50% of opioid-dependent individuals are enrolled in such programs. This study was aimed at examining if availability of extended-release naltrexone (XR-NTX) could attract individuals who for different reasons were not enrolled in an OMT program.
In a Norwegian clinical study, n = 117 opioid-dependent adults volunteered to receive XR-NTX in a 9-month period, as an extension of a previous randomized clinical trial.
Before study inclusion, 40.2% (n = 47) of the study participants were not enrolled in OMT while the remainder were recruited from OMT. Participants not enrolled in OMT displayed more ongoing severe addiction-related problems such as heroin use (p = 0.002), but displayed a higher retention in treatment in the 9-month extension study (p = 0.048 for log-rank test) than participants enrolled in OMT.
Availability of XR-NTX attracted opioid-dependent individuals not previously enrolled in OMT. While OMT may be perceived as a burden with regard to daily intake and control measures, one-monthly injections with XR-NTX may be perceived favourable, offering more freedom to the patients, not having addictive properties, and potentially reducing heroin craving. We suggest that an introduction of XR-NTX in Europe may increase the number of opioid-dependent individuals in treatment.
阿片类药物维持治疗（OMT）在挪威广泛应用，但只有 50%的阿片类药物依赖者参加了该项目。本研究旨在探讨延长释放型纳曲酮（XR-NTX）的可用性是否可以吸引由于各种原因未参加 OMT 项目的个体。
在挪威的一项临床研究中，117 名成年阿片类药物依赖者自愿在 9 个月内接受 XR-NTX 治疗，作为先前随机临床试验的扩展。
在研究纳入之前，40.2%（n=47）的研究参与者未参加 OMT，其余参与者则从 OMT 中招募。未参加 OMT 的参与者表现出更多持续存在的严重成瘾相关问题，如使用海洛因（p=0.002），但在 9 个月的扩展研究中，他们的治疗保留率更高（对数秩检验，p=0.048）。
XR-NTX 的可用性吸引了以前未参加 OMT 的阿片类药物依赖者。虽然 OMT 可能被认为在日常摄入和控制措施方面是一种负担，但每月一次的 XR-NTX 注射可能被认为更有利，为患者提供更多自由，没有成瘾性，并可能减少海洛因渴望。我们建议，在欧洲引入 XR-NTX 可能会增加接受治疗的阿片类药物依赖者数量。
