Extended-release buprenorphine viable, safe during pregnancy

MedPage Today highlighted research led by the University of Cincinnati's John Winhusen published in JAMA Internal Medicine that found administering weekly injectable extended-release buprenorphine for treatment of opioid use disorder (OUD) during pregnancy led to higher rates of abstinence from illicit opioids than buprenorphine given daily under the tongue.

"These findings support weekly extended-release buprenorphine as another viable treatment option for pregnant and postpartum patients with opioid use disorder," Winhusen, PhD, principal investigator and lead author, director of the UC/UC Health Addiction Center, Donald C. Harrison endowed chair in medicine, vice chair of addiction sciences and professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience in UC’s College of Medicine, told MedPage Today.

The research team additionally "did not see worse neonatal opioid withdrawal outcomes among infants exposed to extended-release buprenorphine, despite the higher overall buprenorphine exposure with the injectable formulation," Winhusen noted.

Read the MedPage Today article.

Read more about the research.

Featured photo at top of a pregnant woman. Photo/Stock Planet/iStock.