Importance The emergence of fentanyl in the setting of the US opioid crisis demands reconsideration of clinical approaches to buprenorphine initiation for patients with opioid use disorder (OUD), with the rationale that fentanyl’s unique pharmacology leads to a greater risk of precipitated withdrawal (PW). Use of high-dose buprenorphine for initiation is a strategy that has been hypothesized to lead to less PW and better retention. In the absence of randomized clinical trials, it is important for clinicians to understand the evidence that suggests benefits of high-dose approaches while recognizing methodological limitations. Observations This article summarizes observational studies that have been published as of 2025 addressing key questions relevant to a high-dose buprenorphine approach. First, how common is PW with the standard-dose initiation of buprenorphine for persons who use fentanyl? Is the risk greater than for persons who do not use fentanyl? Second, is high-dose buprenorphine initiation associated with lower risk of PW compared with standard dose? Finally, is initiation of high-dose buprenorphine associated with better long-term treatment outcomes (greater retention and less health care utilization) compared with standard dose? Conclusions and Relevance Several recent studies provided a range of prevalence rates (1%-16%) for PW with buprenorphine initiation for persons with OUD using fentanyl, which may reflect differences in study design and setting. While certain studies described rates of PW that were 3 to 4 times higher among those with fentanyl use compared with those without, they were limited by low power due to the small number of PW events. Studies also did not provide clear evidence as to whether higher buprenorphine initiation is associated with lower risk of PW. Studies suggest higher retention and lower health care utilization with high dose vs the standard approach; however, there were methodologic problems due to observational study design, such as immortal time bias and unmeasured confounding. Evidence to inform clinicians’ decisions whether to initiate buprenorphine treatment with high-dose strategies among patients who use fentanyl was limited, and more definitive studies are needed.
Tsui et al. (Thu,) studied this question.