A preliminary randomized controlled trial of a distress tolerance treatment for opioid dependent persons initiating buprenorphine

•Distress tolerance (DT) participants had high rates of session attendance, demonstrating feasibility.•DT participants had lower rates of opioid use at all follow-up assessments vs health education (HE).•Rates of buprenorphine dropout were 24% and 25% in the HE and DT arms, respectively.

BackgroundBuprenorphine opioid agonist treatment (OAT) has established efficacy for treating opioid dependency but early relapse rates are high and are often associated with withdrawal-related or emotional distress.MethodsTo determine whether a novel distress tolerance (DT) intervention during buprenorphine initiation decreases opioid relapse, we conducted a preliminary randomized controlled trial with opioid-dependent outpatients. Participants received buprenorphine-naloxone induction and 3-months of maintenance buprenorphine plus seven, 50-min manualized, individual sessions (DT vs. health education (HE) control) over a 28-day period, linked to clinician medication dosing visits, and beginning 2 days prior to buprenorphine induction. Primary outcomes included use of illicit opioids (positive defined as any self-reported use in the prior 28 days or detected by urine toxicology) and treatment drop out.ResultsAmong 49 participants, the mean age was 41 years, 65.3% were male. Persons randomized to DT had lower rates of opioid use at all three monthly assessments, and at 3-months, 72% of HE participants were opioid positive compared with 62.5% of DT participants. Rates of dropout were 24% and 25% in the HE and DT arms, respectively.ConclusionsThis distress tolerance treatment produced a small, but not statistically significant reduction in opioid use during the first three months of treatment although no differences were found in drop-out rates between conditions. If replicated in a larger study, DT could offer clinicians a useful behavioral treatment to complement the effects of buprenorphine.