Pharmacotherapy of opioid use disorder

How it is treated

Where opioid use disorder is being treated with buprenorphine, clonidine (Catapres) is a useful adjunct: at 0.1-0.3 mg every 6-8 hours it helps increase the rates of abstinence and decrease stress-related opioid cravings (SOR C).

The drugs that do not belong here fail for three different causes, and it is worth holding the cause rather than the name alone.

• Naloxone is an opioid antagonist used to treat overdoses, not to keep a patient in treatment.
• Nifedipine (Procardia) is a common antihypertensive, like clonidine, but it has no role in the treatment of opioid use disorder.
• Methadone and naltrexone (Vivitrol) are used to treat opioid use disorder, but neither of these agents would be used simultaneously with buprenorphine. They stand as alternatives to it, not as an adjunct alongside it.