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Should patients with HIV undergo medication-assisted treatment for opiate addiction?

April 26, 2017addiction medication-assisted opiate Patients treatment undergo

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Should patients with HIV undergo medication-assisted treatment for opiate addiction?

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Both methadone and buprenorphine interact with medications used to treat HIV. Higher doses may be necessary for some of these patients. Clinicians responsible for treating these patients need to be aware of the potential interactions between buprenorphine or methadone and the drugs used for HIV treatment and to carefully monitor them. Medication-assisted treatment of patients addicted to opiates who also have HIV is particularly important both because participation in the treatment of addiction may foster adherence to HIV treatment and because treatment of the addiction has been shown to reduce the spread of HIV. Physicians who want to treat HIV+ opiate-dependent patients with buprenorphine are referred to a supplement of Clinical Infectious Diseases 43(4):S169-S257, 2006.