The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of
buspirone in attenuating
withdrawal symptoms in
heroin addicts and
methadone-maintained patients following cessation of
heroin or
methadone use. Subjects were twenty hospitalized male chronic
opiate users aged 30-55 who did not present any DSM-IV Axis I disorder with the exception of
opioid dependence. For the first five days, patients received doses of
methadone that were decreased to 30 mg and were maintained on this dose for the following three days.
Methadone was then discontinued, and patients were randomly assigned to
buspirone or placebo treatment from day nine to seventeen. The
buspirone dose was 15 mg on day nine and 30 mg from day ten to day seventeen. Treatment was double-blind.
Withdrawal symptoms were measured with the Objective
Opiate Withdrawal Scale (OOWS) and the Subjective
Opiate Withdrawal Scale (SOWS).
Buspirone-treated patients had significantly lower scores on the OOWS on days thirteen (p=.040), fourteen (p=.025), fifteen (p=.035), and seventeen (p=.035). They also had lower scores on the SOWS on days sixteen (p=.050). It is concluded that
buspirone was effective in attenuating the objective and subjective
withdrawal symptoms that follow
opiate use cessation.