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Title: Calcium Channel Blockers Effective In Opiate Withdrawal

URL: http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/servlet/useragent?func=synergy&
&synergyAction=showAbstract&doi=10.1046/j.1360-0443.2002.00196.x

Addiction Volume 97 Issue 7 Page 819. "Nimodipine in opiate detoxification: a controlled trial"
08/13/2002 11:18:59 AM
By Harvey McConnell

Calcium channel blockers appear to offer a more effective and comfortable technique for opiate detoxification when compared with more conventional regimens. Based on their findings with the use of calcium channel blockers, compared with controls groups receiving nimodipine and dextropropoxiphen, or beta- 2-adrenergic agents and naltrexone, researchers think the findings now warrant a randominised controlled trial. Dr. Juan Manuel Jiménez-Lerma and colleagues at the Addiction Treatment Center of Alva and other colleagues in the Basque Health Service, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain, evaluated the use of L-type calcium channel blockers over seven days at out-patient opiate detoxification clinics. Thirty patients received a course of nimodipine and dextropropoxiphen. One control group of 20 patients received a course of dextropropoxiphen and benzodiazepine; and a second control group of 30 patients received a standard course of beta-2-adrenergic agents and naltrexone. In all groups, detoxification was scheduled over seven days. Dr Jiménez-Lerma and colleagues found that all of the patients had a pattern of significant opiate withdrawal symptoms during detoxification. Starting from the first day, however, patients treated with calcium channel blockers displayed fewer withdrawal symptoms than patients in the two control groups. Intensity of the opiate withdrawal was reduced by 50 percent in the patients receiving calcium channel blockers compared with the intensity of withdrawal displayed by the two control groups. Clinicians had the impression that detoxification was comfortable in all three groups of patients and free of complications. In addition, they did not observe any significant side effects from any of the regimens.

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