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Evaluating Buprenorphine/Naloxone Microdosing vs. Standard Dosing in Emergency Departments (EMED)
This is a multi-centre, open-label randomized controlled trial (RCT) at four Emergency Departments (EDs) in British Columbia and Alberta. The purpose of the current study is to compare the effectiveness of buprenorphine/naloxone microdosing and standard dosing take-home induction regimens at enabling patients to successfully complete the induction regimen, and at retaining patients on opioid agonist therapy.
We randomize our enrolled patients to receive take-home microdosing or standard dosing packages of buprenorphine/naloxone. For the microdosing arm, patients immediately start taking low doses that increase to effective levels without requiring them to go into withdrawal.
We hypothesize that ED patients provided buprenorphine/naloxone microdosing packages will be more likely to successfully complete the induction period compare to patients provided standard dosing packages. We furthermore hypothesize that those provided microdosing will be more likely to be retained in opioid agonist therapy, and will experience lower overdose, mortality, and healthcare utilization subsequent to their ED visit.
We are actively recruiting participants for the EMED study at our Vancouver General Hospital (VGH) and St. Paul’s Hospital (SPH) sites. Study will launch at UBC hospital and Alberta in Feburary 2023.
Qualified Investigators (QIs):
BC study sites: Dr. Jessica Moe (VGH and UBC Hospital); Dr. Andrew Kestler (SPH)
Alberta study sites:
Edmonton: Dr. Kathryn Dong (Royal Alexandra Hospital); Dr. Robert Wittmeier (Northeast Community Health Centre)
Calgary: Dr. Kathryn Crowder (Foothills Medical Centre); Dr. Kathryn Crowder (South Health Campus)
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EMED Study Email: emed.study@ubc.ca
ClinicalTrials.gov Study Details: https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04893525
UBC Department of Emergency Medicine Feature: https://emergency.med.ubc.ca/2021/08/23/buprenorphine-naloxone-microdosing-clinical-trial-launches/