LAIB Top Tips

On Cracking Addiction this week

This episode of Cracking Addiction involves us sharing and discussing some of practical advice and tips when managing patients on long-acting injectable buprenorphine.

In this episode we discuss:
1. The utility of urine drug screens when a patient is on a long-acting injectable buprenorphine
2. Transitioning a patient from Methadone onto Suboxone and then onto a LAIB through a microinduction regimen onto buprenorphine through the 'Bernese method'
3. Managing the pain of an LAIB injection through use of ice or EMLA on the skin prior to injection
4. The risks of creating instability in a patient who was previously stable on their previous opioid substitution therapy regimen who become unstable when converting onto LAIB and how to deal with these potential complications
5. Driving whilst being on a LAIB and what our advice and recommendations to patients about driving safely whilst being on a LAIB

This episode is based on our experiences treating many patients who are on LAIB and the knowledge that we have accumulated over time and is less didactic than previous episodes and more anecdotal.