NEED FOR BASIC BUPRENORPHINE DATA

In a recent bimonthly news update of AT Forum the hope is expressed that a "sufficiently large study finally will be conducted to provide more authoritative guidance regarding if, when, and in whom buprenorphine might be preferred over methadone in pregnant women." True, but precisely the same hope applies with regard to every applicant for treatment or opiate dependence.

It is essential that evidence is sought and reported to support or to lay to rest such commonly expressed views regarding one medication being "better" for the more recently addicted and another for the more "hard-core;" one being "easier to get off" than the other (however that term may be defined); and the belief that one leaves patients "more clear-headed" than the other. For all these issues, and many more, it's high time for "authoritative guidance" to replace dogma.