Naltrexone implant use in Opioid Use Disorder; an example from Turkey

Background: It is known that substance abuse is a growing problem all over the world. Among these substances, heroin stands out with its addiction potential, the physical and mental disorders it causes, and its social effects. Methods: A total of 100 patients admitted to Gaziantep 25 Aralik State Hospital AMATEM Clinic for naltrexone implant application with the diagnosis of Opioid Use Disorder (OUD) between 01.01.2019 and 31.12.2019 were included in the study. The analyses were made with the help of the SPSS 22.0 Program. A p<0.05 level was taken as the threshold level for significance. Results: In terms of clinical statistics, 14.4% of the patients who had been admitted to hospitals in 2019 had made an Extended-Release Naltrexone Implant (ERNI) application. In the evaluation of participating patients at the moment of discharge, 64 (64%) were found to have been discharged with improvement; 11 (11%) were discharged with penalty scores, and 25 (25%) discontinued treatment due to their personal decision. When the first post-ERNI 3-month follow-up examinations of the patients whose data were accessed from the hospital information system were evaluated, 25 patients (40.3%) came to the follow-up examinations. In these examinations, it was found that 7 patients had negative urine toxic screening results for the UTS test. Conclusions: Our study recommends that the eligibility of patients must be carefully assessed in terms of their ERNI application, and that the frequency of clinical follow-ups must be adjusted according to the requirements of each patient. Prospective randomized-controlled trials are needed in our country on ERNI, which is a great hope in terms of treatments designed to avoid the recurrence of OUD.