Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2021
College/Unit
School of Medicine
Department/Program/Center
Behavioral Medicine and Psychiatry
Abstract
Patients with chronic pain managed with opioid medications are at high risk for opioid overuse or misuse. West Virginia University (WVU) established a High-Risk Pain Clinic to use sublingual buprenorphine/naloxone (bup/nal) plus a multimodal approach to help chronic pain patients with history of Substance Use Disorder (SUD) or aberrant drug-related behavior. The objective of this study was to report overall retention rates and indicators of efficacy in pain control from approximately six years of High-Risk Pain Clinic data. A retrospective chart review was conducted for a total of 78 patients who enrolled in the High-Risk Pain Clinic between 2014 and 2020. Data gathered include psychiatric diagnoses, prescribed medications, pain score, buprenorphine/naloxone dosing, time in clinic, and reason for dismissal. A linear mixed effects model was used to assess the pain score from the Defense and Veterans Pain Rating Scale (DVPRS) and daily bup/nal dose across time. The overall retention of the High-Risk Pain Clinic was 41%. The mean pain score demonstrated a significant downward trend across treatment time (p < 0.001), while the opposite trend was seen with buprenorphine dose (p < 0.001). With the benefit of six years of observation, this study supports buprenorphine/naloxone as a safe and efficacious component of comprehensive chronic pain treatment in patients with SUD or high-risk of opioid overuse or misuse.
Digital Commons Citation
Kaski, Shane; Marshalek, Patrick; Herschler, Jeremy; Wen, Sijin; and Zheng, Wanhong, "Sublingual Buprenorphine/Naloxone and Multi-Modal Management for High-Risk Chronic Pain Patients" (2021). Faculty & Staff Scholarship. 2994.
https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/faculty_publications/2994
Source Citation
Kaski, S.; Marshalek, P.; Herschler, J.; Wen, S.; Zheng, W. Sublingual Buprenorphine/Naloxone and Multi-Modal Management for High-Risk Chronic Pain Patients. J. Clin. Med. 2021, 10, 973. https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm10050973
Comments
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
This article received support from the WVU Libraries' Open Access Author Fund.