Hyperbaric oxygen therapy may help people in opioid addiction treatment

Hyperbaric oxygen remedy may possibly assist folks staying addressed for opioid dependancy decrease their methadone dose and greater control suffering and withdrawal symptoms, according to a pair of experiments led by Washington Condition College scientists.

The analysis workforce recruited individuals enrolled in a area opioid treatment plan to exam the consequences of hyperbaric oxygen treatment, a therapy that requires respiratory pure oxygen in a pressurized ecosystem.

Printed in the Journal of Addictions Nursing, the initial paper describes a pilot review of 31 individuals that confirmed that all those who had acquired hyperbaric oxygen treatment as element of a planned methadone taper were being equipped to sustain a significantly larger sized dose reduction of 4.3 mg three months following the examine, as in comparison to .25 mg in members who did not receive the treatment. They also documented fifty percent the degree of withdrawal symptoms skilled by regulate contributors just after only 1 day of hyperbaric oxygen treatment.

When methadone will help persons with opioid addiction get secure and resume their usual lives, it’s nonetheless an opioid that they are having just about every working day. About fifty percent of people in remedy want to get off of methadone for various causes, yet lots of who have tried out have failed and relapsed. Our findings counsel that hyperbaric oxygen treatment could potentially be made use of as a non-pharmacological resource to enable persons move down their methadone treatment method.”

Matthew Layton, review co-author, professor, WSU Elson S. Floyd Faculty of Medicine and former opioid treatment method method healthcare director

The second research, which was printed in Pain Management Nursing, was a smaller randomized controlled trial of eight members that appeared much more carefully at withdrawal symptom relief. It found that members in the hyperbaric oxygen remedy therapy team described decreased suffering intensity and drug cravings than regulate individuals who experienced been offered an oxygen mixture equal to room air shipped at ordinary atmospheric strain. The scientists also observed advancements in other results, these as sleep excellent and temper.

“When for some the problem is to get off methadone, many others wrestle to keep in procedure early on for the reason that discovering the correct dose to stabilize signs can be hard to reach,” explained 1st author Marian Wilson, an associate professor in the WSU School of Nursing and an specialist on pain management and opioid use disorder. “As a consequence, a great deal of people today knowledge withdrawal signs and symptoms in that adjustment time period that can be critical plenty of to make them resume unlawful drug use or drop out of remedy.”

Centered on the collective conclusions from the two reports, the scientists are pursuing funding for a medical trial to confirm their results in a bigger sample of individuals, who would be followed for several yrs.

The plan for the two reports arrived from earlier study by just one of the WSU researchers that confirmed that hyperbaric oxygen remedy supplied soreness relief and diminished physical indications of opioid withdrawal in mice.

“We have been anxious to see if it would get the job done in people,” reported study co-writer Raymond Quock, a professor in the WSU School of Arts and Sciences, who led that function.

If their conclusions keep up in a more substantial medical trial, hyperbaric oxygen remedy could develop into a non-pharmacological tool that vendors can use to support people today deal with soreness and likely decrease their opioid use.

“Past year, above 100,000 men and women died as a final result of the opioid epidemic within the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Layton. “That reveals us that opioid addiction is nevertheless a incredibly large challenge, and we need to have far better strategies to approach it.”

In addition to Layton, Wilson, Quock and some others at WSU, collaborators on these scientific tests bundled Karen Stanek, the healthcare director for the Spokane Hyperbaric Heart and Alvina Jesse, a method supervisor with the Spokane Regional Health and fitness District.

Funding for this perform arrived from the Point out of Washington’s Initiative Evaluate No. 171, which was administered by way of the university’s Alcoholic beverages and Drug Abuse Investigate Software.