Buprenorphine Treatment: A Missed Opportunity to Offer Smoking Cessation Treatment

Patients with opioid use disorder are three-to-four times more likely than the general population to have tobacco use, yet smoking cessation treatment is rarely offered in substance use treatment settings. Office-based buprenorphine treatment provides a unique opportunity to engage patient populations with a high prevalence of tobacco use disorder. The authors of this study investigated smoking status, prescription of smoking cessation medications, and factors associated with receipt of smoking cessation medications among 319 patients treated for opioid use disorder in an office-based buprenorphine treatment program over a 5-year period.

• Of the sample, 67% smoked at initiation of buprenorphine treatment; 16% were prescribed smoking cessation medications.
• Buprenorphine treatment retention at 6 months was associated with prescription of smoking cessation medications (25% of retained patients versus 10% of non-retained patients were prescribed medications for smoking cessation).

Comments:

Although tobacco use is common among patients with opioid use disorder at buprenorphine treatment initiation, documentation of both smoking status and motivation to quit throughout treatment—as well as provision of medications for smoking cessation—are uncommon. This represents a missed opportunity to make an impact on a highly prevalent disease that has widespread consequences.

Jeanette M. Tetrault, MD

Reference:

Nahvi S, Blackstock O, Sohler NL, et al. Smoking cessation treatment among office-based buprenorphine treatment patients. J Subst Abuse Treat. 2014 [Epub ahead of print]. doi:10.1016/j.jsat.2014.04.001.