Recruiting
Phase 2

Buprenorphine with Fentanyl

Sponsor:

University of Pennsylvania

Code:

NCT06379984

Conditions

Opioid Use Disorder

Eligibility Criteria

Sex: All

Age: 18+

Healthy Volunteers: Not accepted

Interventions

Buprenorphine

Study Details

Brief summary:

The goal of this clinical trial is to learn if buprenorphine can be started for opioid use disorder with fentanyl use without requiring or precipitating opioid withdrawal. To be eligible, participants must have moderate or severe opioid use disorder and must have fentanyl detected on a urine drug test.

Participants will be admitted to a monitored research unit for the trial. They will be randomized to start buprenorphine with either standard initiation or with a new approach called rapid outpatient low-dose initiation (ROLDI).

For standard initiation, participants will be instructed to arrive to the unit with at least 8 hours since last fentanyl use. Once they have at least moderately severe opioid withdrawal (Clinical Opiate Withdrawal Scale \[COWS\] 11 or higher), participants will receive 2 mg, 2 mg, 4 mg, and then 8 mg sublingual buprenorphine, with doses every 2 hours. They will then continue 8 mg twice daily (or up to three times daily). This is the current standard of care.

For ROLDI, participants will not be required to have a period abstinence, they will have no or minimal withdrawal (COWS 4 or less) when starting buprenorphine, and participants will take 0.5, 0.5, 0.5, 0.5, 2, 16 mg with doses scheduled every 2 hours. They will then continue 8mg twice daily (or up to three times daily).

The main aim of this clinical trial is to assess whether ROLDI is safe, feasible, acceptable to patients, and worthwhile to study in a larger trial. The secondary aim is to describe fentanyl and norfentanyl pharmacokinetics (that is to say, fentanyl and norfentanyl concentration in blood and urine) during early abstinence to understand why some people using fentanyl develop precipitated withdrawal with standard initiation.

Conditions

Opioid Use Disorder

Study ID

NCT06379984

Start date

May 8, 2025

Status verified date

Jul, 2026

Completion date

Jun 30, 2027

Anticipated

Primary completion date

Dec 31, 2026

Anticipated

Eligibility Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

Sex: All

Age: 18+

Healthy Volunteers: Not accepted

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Ages 18 or older
  • Male, female, transgender, or non-binary
  • DSM-5 criteria for opioid use disorder, moderate to severe
  • Fentanyl positive on urine drug test
  • Able to provide written informed consent in English prior to any study-related procedure

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Pregnancy or actively lactating
  • Previously documented hypersensitivity or allergy to buprenorphine or naloxone
  • DSM-5 criteria for substance use disorder other than opioid use disorder (e.g., cannabis, cocaine, alcohol)
  • Current benzodiazepine use
  • Urine drug testing at screening positive for buprenorphine and/or methadone
  • AST and/or ALT >3x upper limit of normal or total bilirubin >1.5x upper limit of normal
  • eGFR <30 mL/min
  • Use of CYP3A4-metabolized agents such as azole antifungals, macrolides, and protease inhibitors
  • High risk of severe medetomidine withdrawal based on drug urine testing for medetomidine, prior withdrawal syndrome requiring intensive care unit admission, and/or patient-reported severe nausea/vomiting during early withdrawal, at the discretion of the study physicians.
  • Significant medical symptoms (e.g. severe respiratory insufficiency), psychiatric symptoms, or dementia that, in the opinion of the investigators, would preclude compliance with the protocol, cooperation in the study, obtaining informed consent, or ability to safely participate in the study
  • Pending legal action that could prohibit participation and/or compliance in study procedures

Study Design

Enrollment

60 participants

Anticipated

Allocation

Randomized

Intervention Model

Parallel Assignment

Primary purpose

Treatment

Interventions and Outcome Measures

Arms

experimental: Rapid outpatient low-dose initiation

Participants randomized to low-dose initiation will be instructed to arrive to the research unit without withdrawal. Participants with COWS <4 will be admitted to the research unit to begin induction. They will be administered 0.5, 0.5, 1, 1, 1, 4, and then 8 mg as sublingual buprenorphine films with doses scheduled every 2 hours. They will then continue 8mg twice daily (or up to three times daily) as maintenance treatment.

active comparator: Standard initiation

Participants randomized to standard induction will be instructed to arrive to the research unit with mild withdrawal and to have abstained from opioids for at least 8 hours, per ASAM Guidelines. Participants with COWS 4 or higher on initial assessment will be admitted to the research unit to begin induction.

Standard initiation will follow guidelines from the 2020 Focused Update of the ASAM National Practice Guidelines. Once participants have had at least 8 hours of abstinence and have reached COWS 11 or greater, they will be given 2 mg sublingual buprenorphine, followed 2 hours later by 2 mg, followed 2 hours later by 4 mg, followed 2 hours later by 8 mg. They will then continue 8 mg twice (or up to three times) daily as maintenance treatment.

Interventions

Buprenorphine

Sublingual buprenorphine

Primary outcome measure

  • Initiation of buprenorphine maintenance without precipitated withdrawal [ Time Frame: 10 hours ]

Central Contacts and Locations

Locations

University of Pennsylvania Center for Studies of Addiction

Recruiting

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, 19104

Contacts

Kyle M Kampman, MD

1 215 746 2764kampman@pennmedicine.upenn.edu

More Information

Sponsor

University of Pennsylvania

Last update posted

Jul 10, 2026

Last verified

Jul, 2026

Keywords

  • Fentanyl
  • Buprenorphine
  • Low-dose initiation
  • Opioid addiction
  • Opiate

Trial information was received from ClinicalTrials.gov and was last updated on 2026-09-08. This information was provided to ClinicalTrials.gov by University of Pennsylvania on 2026-07-10.