Trial reportPsychopharmacology2005
Randomized clinical trial to compare the effects of methadone and buprenorphine on the immune system in drug abusers.
Trial report in Psychopharmacology, 2005. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 36 papers, 5 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
36 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 83 citations in OpenAlex.
- Oral and injectable opioid agonist treatments for people who use street opioids: a systematic literature review and network meta-analysis.BMC public health · 2025Pooled it
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- Buprenorphine maintenance versus placebo or methadone maintenance for opioid dependence.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2014Pooled it
- Immunogenicity persistence after four intramuscular triple-dose or standard-dose hepatitis B vaccine in patients receiving methadone maintenance treatment: A 1-year follow-up study in China.Human vaccines & immunotherapeutics · 2025Trial
- Preliminary evidence of neuroimmune system disruption in opioid use disorder: Findings from a pilot PET TSPO imaging study.Brain, behavior, & immunity - health · 2026Article
- The Interaction Between Mental Distress and Opioid Maintenance Treatment Impacts Levels of Circulating Cytokines.Addiction biology · 2026Article
- Characterization of inflammatory and neurofunctional markers in the context of early life stress among a clinical sample of people maintained on buprenorphine for opioid use disorder.Brain, behavior, & immunity - health · 2025Article
- Hostility is Associated with Interferon γ Inducible Protein 10 in Opioid Maintenance Treatment Patients with Chronic Hepatitis C.Clinical psychopharmacology and neuroscience : the official scientific journal of the Korean College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2025Article
- Buprenorphine's Effect on the Human Immune System and Inflammation.Clinical and translational science · 2025Review
- Article
- A Review of the Prospective Effects of Methadone on Peripheral Neuropathic Pain in Diabetic Patients.TheScientificWorldJournal · 2025Review
- Fentanyl dysregulates neuroinflammation and disrupts blood-brain barrier integrity in HIV-1 Tat transgenic mice.Journal of neurovirology · 2024Article
- Cytokines in hepatitis C-infected patients with or without opioid maintenance therapy.Acta neuropsychiatrica · 2024Article
- The toll of opioid dependence: A research report on the possible role of Toll-like receptor-4 and related immune markers in opioid dependence.Indian journal of psychiatry · 2023Article
- Buprenorphine reverses neurocognitive impairment in EcoHIV infected mice: A potential therapy for HIV-NCI.Frontiers in immunology · 2022Article
- Buprenorphine Increases HIV-1 Infection In Vitro but Does Not Reactivate HIV-1 from Latency.Viruses · 2021Article
- A double-edged sword of using opioids and COVID-19: a toxicological view.Substance abuse treatment, prevention, and policy · 2020Article
- Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
15 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
rationaleBuprenorphine may be a useful alternative option to methadone in addicts. Opioids can produce severe changes in the immune system.
objectivesThe objectives of this study are to compare the effect of sublingual buprenorphine and methadone on the immune system and to compare the two substances on the drying-out program compliance.
methodsWe studied 62 randomized outpatients for a period of 12 months. Subjects (55 males and 7 females; mean age 25+/-4 years; average history of heroin abuse being 2 years) on maintenance treatment were assigned in two groups (A and B). Methadone chloride (medium dose 100 mg/day) was administered to group A, whereas group B received sublingual buprenorphine (32.40+/-2.8 mg/day). Urine toxicological screening, plasma levels of TNF-alpha interleukin-1, interleukin-beta, lymphocyte CD14 and a self-rating depression questionnaire were measured.
resultsUrine screening was negative for opiates in 17.6% of group A and in 10.7% of group B (p<0.001; r = 0.62). Depression score was 62+/-2 in group A and 55+/-3 in group B (p < 0.01). Cytokine and CD14 revealed higher concentrations both in groups A and B without significant differences (p > 0.05) between the two groups.
conclusionsThe effects of buprenorphine and methadone tested on the immune system were overlapping in our patients. The elevated cytokine levels observed may suggest that the two drugs stimulate immunologic hyperactivation of an immune system that was formerly inhibited by heroin. Furthermore, our data suggest that buprenorphine can be a valid alternative to methadone in maintenance treatment of chronic heroin abuse and referred a marked decline in depression.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.