Trial reportThe American journal of drug and alcohol abuse2016
Anhedonia, depression, anxiety, and craving in opiate dependent patients stabilized on oral naltrexone or an extended release naltrexone implant.
Trial report in The American journal of drug and alcohol abuse, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 23 papers, 1 of them a synthesis 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
23 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 90 citations in OpenAlex.
- Pooled it
- Suicidal ideation in adults with opioid use disorder treated with buprenorphine-naloxone versus extended-release naltrexone.The American journal of drug and alcohol abuse · 2025Trial
- Patient Characteristics Associated with Opioid Abstinence after Participation in a Trial of Buprenorphine versus Injectable Naltrexone.Substance use & misuse · 2022Trial
- Opioid use and dropout from extended-release naltrexone in a controlled trial: implications for mechanism.Addiction (Abingdon, England) · 2020Trial
- Anxiety, Depression, and Insomnia Among Adults With Opioid Dependence Treated With Extended-Release Naltrexone vs Buprenorphine-Naloxone: A Randomized Clinical Trial and Follow-up Study.JAMA psychiatry · 2019Trial
- Accounting for the uncounted: Physical and affective distress in individuals dropping out of oral naltrexone treatment for opioid use disorder.Drug and alcohol dependence · 2018Trial
- Opiate Antagonists for Chronic Pain: A Review on the Benefits of Low-Dose Naltrexone in Arthritis versus Non-Arthritic Diseases.Biomedicines · 2023Review
- Depressive Symptomatology Is Associated With Smaller Reductions in Drug Cue Reactivity During Extended-Release Naltrexone Treatment of Opioid Use Disorder.The Journal of clinical psychiatry · 2023Article
- Mediation of the behavioral effects of ketamine and (2R,6R)-hydroxynorketamine in mice by kappa opioid receptors.Psychopharmacology · 2022Article
- Pharmacological investigations of effort-based decision-making in humans: Naltrexone and nicotine.PloS one · 2022Article
- Naltrexone Implant for Opioid Use Disorder.Neurology international · 2021Review
- A Novel Maintenance Therapeutic for Opioid Use Disorder.The Journal of pharmacology and experimental therapeutics · 2021Article
- Suicide Risk and Addiction: The Impact of Alcohol and Opioid Use Disorders.Current addiction reports · 2021Review
- Management of Sedation and Analgesia in Critically Ill Patients Receiving Long-Acting Naltrexone Therapy for Opioid Use Disorder.Annals of the American Thoracic Society · 2020Article
- Administration of a putative pro-dopamine regulator, a neuronutrient, mitigates alcohol intake in alcohol-preferring rats.Behavioural brain research · 2020Article
- Polysomnographic Correlates for the Risk of Relapse in Detoxified Opiate-Misuse Patients.Neuropsychiatric disease and treatment · 2020Article
- Comorbidity of opioid-related and anxiety-related symptoms and disorders.Current opinion in psychology · 2019Review
- Anhedonia as a key clinical feature in the maintenance and treatment of opioid use disorder.Clinical psychological science : a journal of the Association for Psychological Science · 2019Article
- Autonomic and affective mediators of the relationship between mindfulness and opioid craving among chronic pain patients.Experimental and clinical psychopharmacology · 2019Article
- Addiction, Anhedonia, and Comorbid Mood Disorder. A Narrative Review.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2019Review
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 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundNaltrexone is a μ-opioid receptor antagonist that blocks opioid effects. Craving, depression, anxiety, and anhedonia are common among opioid dependent individuals and concerns have been raised that naltrexone increases them due to blocking endogenous opioids. Here, we present data that address these concerns.
objectiveAssess the relationship between affective responses and naltrexone treatment.
methodsOpioid dependent patients (N = 306) were enrolled in a three cell (102ss/cell) randomized, double blind, double dummy, placebo-controlled 6-month trial comparing extended release implantable naltrexone with oral naltrexone and placebo (oral and implant). Monthly assessments of affective responses used a Visual Analog Scale for opioid craving, the Beck Depression Inventory, Spielberger Anxiety Test, and the Ferguson and Chapman Anhedonia Scales. Between-group outcomes were analyzed using mixed model analysis of variance (Mixed ANOVA) and repeated measures and the Tukey test for those who remained and treatment and did not relapse, and between the last measure before dropout with the same measure for those remaining in treatment.
resultsDepression, anxiety, and anhedonia were elevated at baseline but reduced to normal within the first 1-2 months for patients who remained in treatment and did not relapse. Other than a slight increase in two anxiety measures at week two, there were no significant between-group differences prior to treatment dropout.
conclusionThese data do not support concerns that naltrexone treatment of opioid dependence increases craving, depression, anxiety or anhedonia.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
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.