ArticleFrontiers in psychiatry2026
Comparative efficacy of naltrexone-accelerated versus sublingual buprenorphine in opioid withdrawal management and initiating injectable naltrexone treatment: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial.
Article in Frontiers in psychiatry, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
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
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background: Extended-release injectable naltrexone (XR-NTX), a long-acting opioid antagonist, is an effective relapse prevention strategy in the treatment of opioid use disorder (OUD). However, standard XR-NTX initiation requires completion of opioid withdrawal management and a 1-2 week opioid-free period. This interval is associated with heightened vulnerability to lapse and relapse, and many patients fail to initiate XR-NTX treatment successfully. Therefore, alternative strategies that enable rapid XR-NTX initiation are needed. This study aimed to compare the effectiveness and safety of naltrexone-accelerated (NA) versus sublingual buprenorphine (SB) withdrawal management in facilitating XR-NTX initiation among patients with OUD. Methods: This single-center, open-label, randomized controlled trial uses a parallel-group design. Eligible patients aged 18-60 years with moderate to severe OUD who are actively using opioids and are not receiving regular maintenance treatment with methadone or buprenorphine are randomly assigned to one of two groups: (1) NA withdrawal management, comprising one day of adjunctive non-opioid medications, one day of buprenorphine administration, one day of washout, and four days of gradual oral naltrexone titration (1, 3, 12, and 25 mg/day); or (2) SB withdrawal management, comprising one day of adjunctive non-opioid medications, six days of buprenorphine tapering (up to 8 mg on Day 2, 6 mg on Day 3, 4 mg on Days 4-5, 2 mg on Day 6, and 1 mg on Day 7), and a seven-day washout period. Adjunctive non-opioid medications in both groups comprised clonidine, clonazepam, gabapentin, and trazodone. The primary outcomes are the proportions of participants who (1) achieve a negative urine drug test for the assessed opioids and (2) receive XR-NTX at the end of the withdrawal management period. Secondary outcomes include severity of withdrawal symptoms, opioid craving intensity, and adverse effects. All analyses are conducted according to the intention-to-treat principle. Discussion: The findings of this trial may provide clinically relevant evidence to support rapid initiation of XR-NTX treatment in patients with OUD and inform clinical practice. Clinical trial registration: https://en.irct.ir/trial/81525, Iranian Registry of Clinical Trials IRCT20250123064499N1.
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.