Low-dose Buccal Buprenorphine: Relative Abuse Potential and Analgesia
Status:
Recruiting
Trial end date:
2026-10-01
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
Summary
The goal of this study is to compare the abuse potential of low-dose equianalgesic buccal
buprenorphine to a commonly used full mu opioid receptor (MOR) agonist in a highly controlled
experimental setting. This is a translational study in which healthy participants are
phenotyped for psychosocial and Opioid-Use-Disorder-risk-related metrics. In a
within-subjects crossover design, 60 participants will receive a standard postoperative oral
oxycodone dose (10 mg), placebo, and 3 different doses of buccal buprenorphine across 5
separate sessions. Quantitative Sensory Testing (QST) will be used to evaluate alterations in
pain responsiveness relative to placebo across buprenorphine doses and oxycodone, and will
compare abuse potential (indexed by the standard FDA drug liking metric) following
equianalgesic doses of the two drugs.