Buprenorphine adoption in the National Drug Abuse Treatment Clinical Trials Network.

The National Drug Abuse Treatment Clinical Trials Network (CTN), a collaborative federal research initiative that brings together universities and community-based treatment programs (CTPs), has conducted multiple clinical trials of buprenorphine for opioid dependence. Part of the CTN’s mission is to promote the adoption of evidence-based treatment technologies. Drawing on data collected during face-to-face interviews with administrators from a panel of 206 CTPs as part of the National Treatment Center Study at the University of Georgia, this research examines the adoption of buprenorphine over a 2-year period. The data indicated that the adoption of buprenorphine doubled between the baseline and 24-month follow-up interviews.

Involvement in a buprenorphine protocol continued to be a strong predictor of adoption at the 2-year follow-up, although adoption of buprenorphine tripled among those CTPs without buprenorphine-specific protocol experience. For-profit CTPs and those offering inpatient detoxification services were more likely to adopt buprenorphine over time. A small percentage of programs discontinued using buprenorphine. These findings point to the dynamic nature of service delivery in community-based addiction treatment and the continued need for longitudinal studies of organizational change.