Am J Psychiatry 1985; 142:1081-1084
Copyright © 1985 by American Psychiatric Association
Naltrexone-induced dysphoria in former opioid addicts
TJ Crowley, JE Wagner, G Zerbe and M Macdonald
Naltrexone treatment, used to prevent relapse among former opioid addicts,
is reported to have an extraordinary rate of noncompliance. Since
activation of opioid receptors produces a sense of well-being, naltrexone's
blockade of these receptors might produce dysphoria, which could contribute
to noncompliance among addicts under treatment. To test this hypothesis,
the authors administered naltrexone to four men who had been free of
opioids for 9 to 44 months using a 6-week, placebo- controlled crossover
design. One subject dropped out with abstinence- like symptoms, and two
others reported mild but significantly greater dysphoria during naltrexone
administration. The results suggest that naltrexone may induce mild
dysphoria long after addicts stop using opioids.
