Trial reportThe American journal on addictions
Patient perspectives on choosing buprenorphine over methadone in an urban, equal-access system.
Trial report in The American journal on addictions. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 46 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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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
46 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Barriers and facilitators to initiating and adhering to harm reduction services among people who inject drugs in the United States: a systematic review.Harm reduction journal · 2026Pooled it
- 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
- A systematic review of patients' and providers' perspectives of medications for treatment of opioid use disorder.Journal of substance abuse treatment · 2020Pooled it
- Opioid agonist therapy switching among individuals with prescription-type opioid use disorder: Secondary analysis of a pragmatic randomized trial.Drug and alcohol dependence · 2023Trial
- Video directly observed therapy for patients receiving office-based buprenorphine - A pilot randomized controlled trial.Drug and alcohol dependence · 2021Trial
- Effects of access barriers and medication acceptability on buprenorphine-naloxone treatment utilization over 2 years: Results from a multisite randomized trial of adults with opioid use disorder.Journal of substance abuse treatment · 2019Trial
- Hospitalized opioid-dependent patients: Exploring predictors of buprenorphine treatment entry and retention after discharge.The American journal on addictions · 2017Trial
- Voriconazole more likely than posaconazole increases plasma exposure to sublingual buprenorphine causing a risk of a clinically important interaction.European journal of clinical pharmacology · 2016Trial
- Preliminary findings on the association between clients' perceived helpfulness of substance abuse treatment and outcomes: does race matter?Drug and alcohol dependence · 2014Trial
- Multilevel determinants of medication preferences for opioid use disorder among criminal-legal-involved populations: Insights from a scoping review.Drug and alcohol dependence reports · 2025Review
- Trends in stimulant use among patients with opioid use disorder receiving substance use treatment: Findings from a prospective cohort study from 2013 to 2020.Drug and alcohol dependence · 2025Article
- Predictors of future overdose among people who inject drugs in Baltimore, Maryland.Drug and alcohol dependence reports · 2024Article
- Patient and provider medication preferences affect treatment outcomes among adolescents and young adults with opioid use disorder.Journal of substance use and addiction treatment · 2024Article
- The effect of a pilot brief educational intervention on preferences regarding treatments for opioid use disorder.Drug and alcohol dependence reports · 2024Article
- Shaping and shifting schemas on supervised injectable opioid treatment: findings from a cross-sectional qualitative study in two German treatment facilities.Addiction science & clinical practice · 2024Article
- Loss, liberation, and agency: Patient experiences of methadone treatment at opioid treatment programs during the COVID-19 pandemic.Journal of substance use and addiction treatment · 2024Article
- Quality of life and associated factors of heroin-dependent patients receiving methadone and buprenorphine maintenance treatment.Neuropsychopharmacology reports · 2023Article
- Racial And Ethnic Disparities In Buprenorphine Receipt Among Medicare Beneficiaries, 2015-19.Health affairs (Project Hope) · 2023Article
- Scope of, Motivations for, and Outcomes Associated with Buprenorphine Diversion in the United States: A Scoping Review.Substance use & misuse · 2023Article
- Treatment preference for opioid use disorder among people who are incarcerated.Journal of substance abuse treatment · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
9 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundRecent policy initiatives in Baltimore City, MD significantly reduced access disparities between methadone and buprenorphine in the publicly funded treatment sector.
objectivesThis study examines reasons for choosing buprenorphine over methadone among patients with access to both medications.
methodThis study was embedded within a larger clinical trial conducted at two outpatient substance abuse treatment programs offering buprenorphine. Qualitative and quantitative data on treatment choice were collected for new patients starting buprenorphine treatment (n = 80). The sample consisted of predominantly urban African American (94%) heroin users who had prior experience with non-prescribed street buprenorphine (85%), and opioid agonist treatment (68%). Qualitative data were transcribed and coded for themes, while quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive and bivariate statistics.
resultsParticipants typically conveyed their choice of buprenorphine treatment as a decision against methadone. Buprenorphine was perceived as a helpful medication while methadone was perceived as a harmful narcotic with multiple unwanted physical effects. Positive experiences with non-prescribed "street buprenorphine" were a central factor in participants' decisions to seek buprenorphine treatment.
conclusionsDifferences in service structure between methadone and buprenorphine did not strongly influence treatment-seeking decisions in this sample. Personal experiences with medications and the street narrative surrounding them play an important role in treatment selection decisions. SCIENTIFIC SIGNIFICANCE: This study characterizes important decision factors that underlie patients' selection of buprenorphine over methadone treatment.
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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.