Summary and Analysis
A report titled A Review of Buprenorphine Diversion and Misuse: The Current Evidence Base and Experiences from Around the World from The Journal of Addiction Medicine, and published by the National Library of Medicine, revealed that with the increase in the use of buprenorphine “there have been increasing concerns about its diversion, misuse and related harms.” The report further noted that “diversion and misuse occur across the world in various contexts, for many different reasons, and are not limited to buprenorphine.”
Excerpted from Journal of Addiction Medicine
Abstract
Outpatient opioid addiction treatment with sublingual buprenorphine pharmacotherapy (OBOT) has rapidly expanded in the United States and abroad, and, with this increase in medication availability, there have been increasing concerns about its diversion, misuse and related harms. This narrative review defines the behaviors of diversion and misuse, examines how the pharmacology of buprenorphine alone and in combination with naloxone influence its abuse liability, and describes the epidemiological data on buprenorphine diversion and intravenous misuse, risk factors for its intravenous misuse and the unintended consequences of misuse and diversion.
