Research on naltrexone in the criminal justice system

Many parolees and probationers are opioid abusers, and substance abuse is a leading factor for the revocation of probation, parole, and other alternatives to incarceration. The opioid antagonist naltrexone would appear to be an excellent treatment for opioid abuse and dependence in this population and the authors sought to systematically review this literature. Using the PubMed database, the authors identified large bodies of criminal justice (CJS) and naltrexone literature. The search terms used in both searches were crosschecked to identify all articles that involved research on naltrexone in the CJS. Only two articles were identified. The lack of research on naltrexone in the criminal justice system highlights the need for more research on naltrexone in our overburdened CJS.