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CTN - 0051: Extended-Release Naltrexone vs. Buprenorphine for Opioid Treatment (X:BOT)

The overarching goal of CTN-0051 is to foster adoption of new relapse-prevention pharmacotherapies in community-based treatment programs (CTPs) where these could have a substantial public health impact. To this end CTN-0051 will assess the comparative effectiveness of extended-release injectable naltrexone (XR-NTX, Vivitrol®), an opioid antagonist recently approved and indicated for the prevention of relapse to opioid dependence, versus buprenorphine-naloxone (BUP-NX, Suboxone®), a high affinity partial agonist indicated for maintenance treatment of opioid dependence, as pharmacotherapeutic aids to recovery.

The study is conducted in 8 CTN-affiliated CTPs that provide or partner with detoxification services (inpatient/residential) which have the capacity to maintain participants opioid-free for approximately 3-7 days, have the capacity to provide medication-assisted therapy, and can provide a minimum of one group or individual counseling session per week during the 24-week treatment period. Up to 600 eligible participants will be randomized to treatment with XR-NTX or BUP-NX for 24 weeks (sufficient to include 350 participants who are randomized more than 72 hours after their last opioid). To maximize generalizability, the point of randomization is flexible, from shortly after program admission until just prior to program discharge.

The primary goal of the study is to estimate the difference, if one exists, between XR-NTX and BUP-NX in the distribution of the time to relapse (i.e., loss of persistent abstinence) during the 6-month trial. The primary outcome measure is the time to the event, with the event called relapse. Secondary objectives are to: (1) compare outcome on XR-NTX versus BUP-NX across a range of clinical safety and secondary efficacy domains, (2) explore demographic, clinical, and genetic predictors of successful treatment and moderators of differential effectiveness (i.e., what variables may help clinicians choose which of these treatments is best for a given patient), and (3) collect a limited dataset to permit analyses of economic costs and benefits of the two treatments.