[Buprenorphine use, a bad prognostic indicator in drug dependence]

We studied 184 patients with DSM III-R diagnostic criteria for opiate dependence and classified them in order of their buprenorphine use: those who never used it (21%), others who used it from time to time (43.5%), and those who use it habitually (35.5%). The patients who use buprenorphine habitually have a poorer social functioning and are more disturbed clinically. They present too: more unemployment (p less than 0.05), longer time of opioid dependence (p less than 0.05), they offend usually (p less than 0.001), they traffic in drugs more than the other patients (p less than 0.001), mostly buprenorphine (p less than 0.001) and they are usually polydrug-addicts (p less than 0.001).