SEATTLE — UW Medicine doctors have possibly discovered a new treatment for opioid-use disorder that causes less withdrawal than some other forms of treatment.
Their findings were published in JAMA Network Open on Friday, according to the University of Washington Newsroom website.
UW doctors worked with the Downtown Emergency Service Center, a non-profit that helps people who struggle with long-term homelessness and the issues that cause it.
They helped to develop and organize the study that included 95 patients who were struggling with opioid-use disorder.
The study was able to gain funding by providing the clinical data they analyzed through grants given by the King County government and the Pacific Hospital Preservation and Development Authority of King County
80% of the participants were unhoused or living in permanent supportive housing.
And all research was done through the Opioid Treatment Network that helps bring much-needed care to people in clinics or by meeting patients in shelters, encampments or supportive housing.
The new treatment was tested in a study that was held by UW Medicine by September 2024 to January 2025.
Usually, during opioid-use treatment, patients are asked to go through withdrawal symptoms before being given Buprenorphine, a drug used to treat opioid-use disorder.
And all research was done through the Opioid Treatment Network that helps bring much-needed care to people in clinics or by meeting patients in shelters, encampments, or supportive housing.
The new treatment was tested in a study held by UW Medicine from September 2024 to January 2025.
Instead, patients were given overlapping doses of Buprenorphine without having to go through withdrawal symptoms.
The study found that 75% of participants completed the three-day injection series and 64% returned for a second dose.
“Being able to get someone started on life-saving medication like buprenorphine without the need for an initial period of withdrawal is particularly important for people experiencing homelessness,” said Dr. Jared Klein, associate professor of medicine, Division of General Internal Medicine, at the University of Washington School of Medicine and senior author of the paper. “This study is a significant contribution to the existing literature around novel methods of starting buprenorphine in the era of fentanyl.”
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