Pain and Sleep Measures in Methadone and in Suboxone Patients

Pain and impaired sleep are often reported by patients in opiate substitution therapy.
We compared sleep and pain ratings by patients treated with methadone to those treated with suboxone (buprenorphine/naloxone combination).
Patients and Sixty-eight patients (44 men, 24 women) undergoing opiate substitution treatment were treated with methadone (mean dose = 42.2 mg, SD = 24.6) or suboxone (mean dose = 9.7 mg, SD = 5.0). Their ratings of current level of pain on a scale from 0 (no pain) to 10 (extreme pain), their sleep ratings on the Pittsburgh sleep quality index, and outcomes of their urine screening tests for cocaine, oxycodone, opiates, and benzodiazepines were recorded.
Sleep quality was rated as “fairly bad” by 42.0% and as “very bad” by 8.2% of our patients. Moderate to severe levels of pain (pain ratings > 3 points) were reported by 55.9% of our patients. Neither the dose of suboxone nor the dose of methadone correlated with pain and sleep ratings (rho, P > 0.05). Suboxone patients did not differ from those on methadone in their sleep and pain ratings (Mann-Whitney, P > 0.05).
Suboxone and methadone patients did not differ in their ratings of pain and sleep.