Drug Implant for Opioid Addiction Looks Effective

Drug Implant for Opioid Addiction Looks Effective: "Implanting the addiction-treatment drug buprenorphine in people who are opioid-dependent seems to reduce cravings in the short term, researchers say.
By delivering a low but continuous dose of the medication, the implant is designed to reduce the risk that patients addicted to heroin or prescription painkillers (such as Oxycontin) will relapse after missing doses of buprenorphine or simply stop the daily, under-the-tongue treatment altogether.
Dr. Walter Ling, from the University of California, Los Angeles, and his colleagues report their findings in the Oct. 13 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
'In summary, this study found that the use of buprenorphine implants compared with placebo resulted in less opioid use over 16 weeks and also across the full 24 weeks,' the research team said in a news release from the journal."