UI - 000227

AU - Tennant FS Jr.

AU - Rawson RA

TI - Outpatient treatment of prescription opioid dependence: comparison of two methods

AB - AB - Twenty-one patients dependent on prescription opioids were treated by 21-day detoxification

followed by psychotherapeutic counseling (D/C), and 21 patients were detoxified 21 days and provided

opioid maintenance if detoxification was unsuccessful (D/M). Only five of 21 (23.8%) patients in the D/C

group compared with 20 of 21 (95.2%) in the D/M group completed three weeks of treatment. No patient

initially perceived that chronic pain due to a medical condition would be an impediment to withdrawal from

opioids, but pain that was masked by opioid dependency and that emerged during detoxification proved to

be an insurmountable barrier to total withdrawal in the majority of patients. Treatment of outpatients with

dependence on prescription opioids is best provided by opioid maintenance therapy and adjunctive pain

therapy UI - 83021493

SO - Arch Intern Med 1982;142:1845-1847