Anxiety Treatment of Methamphetamine-Dependent Patients With Buprenorphine: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Clinical Trial Publisher



Ahmadi J¹ ; Bazrafshan A¹ ; Sahraian A² ; Jalali S¹ ; Fakhermanesh M¹ ; Hooshyari Z^{3, 4}
Source: Tzu Chi Medical Journal Published:2023

Abstract

Objectives: In this double-blind, randomized clinical trial, the effectiveness of buprenorphine (BUPRE) in the reduction of anxiety symptoms among the methamphetamine (MA) dependents was evaluated. Materials and Methods: The 60 MA-dependent patients were randomly assigned to three groups (0.1 mg, 1 mg, and 8 mg of BUPRE), The Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale was administrated to assess the anxiety symptoms daily at baseline and second to the 5 th day after intervention. The inclusion criteria were the MA dependence, age of over 18 years, and absence of any chronic physical illnesses; exclusion criteria were the presence of other drug dependence in combination with MA. The mixed-design analysis of variance was performed for data analysis. Results: A significant main effect of time (F = 51.456, P < 0.001) and group (F = 4.572, P = 0.014) and group-by-time interaction (F = 8.475, P < 0.001) were detected. Conclusions: This finding supports the efficacy of BUPRE to decrease anxiety. High doses of the drug (1 and 8 mg) were more effective than 0.1 mg. Here was not a significant difference between anxiety score when patients received 1 mg of BUPRE instead of 8 mg. © 2023 Wolters Kluwer Medknow Publications. All rights reserved.