Evaluating Buprenorphine/Naloxone Microdosing vs. Standard Dosing in Emergency Departments
Status:
Recruiting
Trial end date:
2025-06-01
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
Summary
This is a multi-centre, open-label RCT at four Emergency Departments (EDs) in British
Columbia and Alberta. The purpose of the current study is to compare the effectiveness of
buprenorphine/naloxone microdosing and standard dosing take-home induction regimens at
enabling patients to successfully complete the induction regimen, and at retaining patients
on opioid agonist therapy.
We will randomize our enrolled patients to receive take-home microdosing or standard dosing
packages of buprenorphine/naloxone. For the microdosing arm, patients immediately start
taking low doses that increase to effective levels without requiring them to go into
withdrawal.
We hypothesize that ED patients provided buprenorphine/naloxone microdosing packages will be
more likely to successfully complete the induction period compare to patients provided
standard dosing packages. We furthermore hypothesize that those provided microdosing will be
more likely to be retained in opioid agonist therapy, and will experience lower overdose,
mortality, and healthcare utilization subsequent to their ED visit.
Phase:
Phase 2/Phase 3
Details
Lead Sponsor:
University of British Columbia
Treatments:
Buprenorphine Buprenorphine, Naloxone Drug Combination Naloxone