Patient With Very High Opioid Tolerance Enrolled in Opioid Agonist Treatment: A Case Report

Fentanyl and fentanyl analogs have invaded the street-sourced opioid market in North America which has resulted in an unprecedented number of unintentional opioid overdoses. Existing guidelines to treat opioid use disorder are based on evidence that was developed when heroin was the primary street-sourced opioid and proposed dosages of opioid agonist treatments are increasingly inadequate to address patients with high opioid tolerances.

The authors examine one case study of a patient with an extremely high opioid tolerance and review how responsive dose adjustments outside of the recognized maximum doses allowed for meaningful functional outcomes.

This case demonstrates how patient-centered dose responses with a focus on functional outcomes supersede existing opioids agonist treatment dosing ranges, especially in the context of a patient with a higher than typical opioid tolerance.