Abstract
Cigarette smoking increased during administration of buprenorphine, an opioid mixed agonist-antagonist, in comparison to drug-free baseline in seven heroin addicts maintained on buprenorphine for 24 days (P<0.01–0.001). Ascending buprenorphine doses (0.5–8.0 mg/day) were associated with significant increases in cigarette smoking at doses of 2.0 mg/day sc and above. Cigarette smoking during 10 days of buprenorphine maintenance at 8 mg/day was significantly higher than during the buprenorphine induction phase (P<0.01). Six subjects given placebo buprenorphine over 14 days showed no change in cigarette smoking. The placebo group self-administered heroin for 10 days, and cigarette smoking increased significantly during heroin use (P<0.001). The rate of cigarette smoking defined by intercigarette intervals was highest during the 10 days of high-dose buprenorphine maintenance or placebo plus heroin self-administration. Both groups requested significantly more cigarettes at intervals of 0–10, 11–20, and 21–30 min than during the drug-free baseline. These data confirmed previous findings that opioid agonist administration is associated with increased cigarette smoking and suggest that buprenorphine has primarily agonist effects on cigarette smoking.
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Mello, N.K., Lukas, S.E. & Mendelson, J.H. Buprenorphine effects on cigarette smoking. Psychopharmacology 86, 417–425 (1985). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00427902
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00427902