Affected person receiving hyperbaric oxygen remedy.
Hyperbaric oxygen remedy could assist individuals being handled for opioid dependancy scale back their methadone dose and higher handle ache and withdrawal signs, in line with a pair of research led by Washington State College scientists.
The analysis workforce recruited contributors enrolled in a neighborhood opioid therapy program to check the consequences of hyperbaric oxygen remedy, a therapy that includes respiration pure oxygen in a pressurized setting.
Printed within the Journal of Addictions Nursing, the primary paper describes a pilot research of 31 contributors that confirmed that those that had obtained hyperbaric oxygen remedy as a part of a deliberate methadone taper had been in a position to preserve a considerably bigger dose discount of 4.3 mg three months after the research, as in comparison with 0.25 mg in contributors who didn't obtain the remedy. Additionally they reported half the extent of withdrawal signs skilled by management contributors after solely sooner or later of hyperbaric oxygen remedy.
“Whereas methadone helps individuals with opioid dependancy get steady and resume their regular lives, it’s nonetheless an opioid that they're taking every single day,” mentioned research co-author Matthew Layton, a professor within the WSU Elson S. Floyd Faculty of Drugs and a former opioid therapy program medical director. “About half of individuals in therapy need to get off of methadone for numerous causes, but many who've tried have failed and relapsed. Our findings counsel that hyperbaric oxygen remedy might doubtlessly be used as a non-pharmacological instrument to assist individuals step down their methadone therapy.”
The second research, which was printed in Ache Administration Nursing, was a small randomized managed trial of eight contributors that appeared extra carefully at withdrawal symptom reduction. It discovered that contributors within the hyperbaric oxygen remedy therapy group reported decrease ache depth and drug cravings than management contributors who had been given an oxygen combination equal to room air delivered at regular atmospheric strain. The researchers additionally noticed enhancements in different outcomes, resembling sleep high quality and temper.
“Whereas for some the problem is to get off methadone, others battle to remain in therapy early on as a result of discovering the correct dose to stabilize signs may be tough to attain,” mentioned first creator Marian Wilson, an affiliate professor within the WSU Faculty of Nursing and an professional on ache administration opioid use dysfunction. “Consequently, lots of people expertise withdrawal signs in that adjustment interval that may be extreme sufficient to make them resume unlawful drug use or drop out of therapy.”
Primarily based on the collective findings from the 2 research, the researchers are pursuing funding for a scientific trial to verify their findings in a bigger pattern of contributors, who could be adopted for a number of years.
The concept for the 2 research got here from earlier analysis by one of many WSU researchers that confirmed that hyperbaric oxygen remedy offered ache reduction and decreased bodily indicators of opioid withdrawal in mice.
“We had been anxious to see if it could work in individuals,” mentioned research co-author Raymond Quock, a professor within the WSU Faculty of Arts and Sciences, who led that work.
If their findings maintain up in a bigger scientific trial, hyperbaric oxygen remedy might develop into a non-pharmacological instrument that suppliers can use to assist individuals handle ache and doubtlessly scale back their opioid use.
“Final 12 months, over 100,000 individuals died because of the opioid epidemic throughout the COVID-19 pandemic,” mentioned Layton. “That reveals us that opioid dependancy continues to be a really huge drawback, and we have to have higher methods to method it.”
Reference: “Hyperbaric Oxygen to Help Adults With Opioid Use Dysfunction in Lowering Methadone Dose” by Wilson, Marian PhD, MPH, RN-BC; Odom-Maryon, Tamara PhD; Stanek, Karen PhD, MD; Roush, Trevor BS; Muriungi, Joseph AA; Jesse, Alvina AA; Quock, Raymond M. PhD and Layton, Matthew PhD, MD, January/March 2022, Journal of Addictions Nursing.
DOI: 10.1097/JAN.0000000000000447
Along with Layton, Wilson, Quock and others at WSU, collaborators on these research included Karen Stanek, the medical director for the Spokane Hyperbaric Heart and Alvina Jesse, a program supervisor with the Spokane Regional Well being District.
Funding for this work got here from the State of Washington’s Initiative Measure No. 171, which was administered by the college’s Alcohol and Drug Abuse Analysis Program.
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