Frequently Asked Questions About Suboxone Treatment
So lots of questions have popped up on this blog about different aspects of Suboxone and its effects that haven’t been touched upon in different posts. In an effort to answer those questions, I’ve compiled a list of frequently asked questions below.
Does Suboxone have side effects?
Yes. Just like other opiates, Subutex and Suboxone has side effects, not the least of which is withdrawal symptoms if taken too soon in an attempt to detox off of other opiate medications or heroin, especially for people who are addicted to a high dose of other opiates. Nausea and vomiting as well as constipation are most often reported to varying degrees. Withdrawal symptoms are like that associated with all opiates: muscle aches and cramps, sweating, runny nose, diarrhea and stomach cramps, low fever and chills, irritability and an inability to sleep or eat.
Can Suboxone be abused?
Yes, it sure can. Especially if you’re not addicted to opiates, you can get high by taking bupe. It doesn’t have the same euphoric effects that other opiates provide and there’s a ceiling to what little amount of a “high” it will provide, so it’s not a drug that is commonly abused but it certainly is possible. The naloxone in Suboxone prevents it from being abused by injection.
Is Suboxone a pain reliever?
No. It is only prescribed for opiate addiction treatment and not for pain. If you are addicted to pain pills and suffer from chronic pain then your pain will return if you detox off of your medication with Suboxone.
Is Suboxone better than methadone?
No. It’s different, and some people should not take buprenorphine for drug addiction treatment but should take methadone instead. For example, pregnant women and those who suffer from chronic pain should not take Suboxone or Subutex and will fare much better on methadone maintenance treatment. Suboxone works best for to help those who became addicted to prescription pain medication after a short-term bout with pain.
Why do I have to get sick before I can take Suboxone?
The best way to explain it is to show you, and the online buprenorphine training at buprenorphineCME.com explains very clearly how buprenorphine binds to receptors and why it can cause withdrawal. Plus, it has pictures!
Do you have any questions about Suboxone or how it works?
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May 9th, 2008 at 8:49 pm
My question is this: Why do detox programs that include methadone and suboxone go on so long? Methadone treatment usually requires you to take ‘dones for 60 days, but of course by then you are addicted to the methadone. Suboxone, at least everywhere I’ve seen, requires six weeks. But the truth is the physical pain associated with withdrawal is gone after 3-6 days, depending on the person. For me, the pain part is over with by the end of day three. It seems that detox treatments like this are being run like a business where the recovering addict is a customer, and the detox center is just looking for repeat business.
Why aren’t addicts given these medications for 3-6 days, and then allowed to move on to the next step of treatment rather than substituting one addiction for another, and then having to ween them off the new addiction? It seems like a financially-based scam, although with positive end results.
May 11th, 2008 at 9:49 pm
What is the first step to help a family member who is depending of painkillers like Oxycodone and refuse any intent of help?
This person is spending all earned money in drugs, looks weak and sick but rejects any advice or suggestion. Parents are very concerned with this situation. I would like to know what could be the first step help in a situation like this.
Thank you.
May 11th, 2008 at 11:44 pm
An interevention seems like the best first step forward if the person is addicted to painkillers and attempts to discuss it have been brushed aside. You can find professional interventionists to help mediate and plan the event if you need assistance. Good luck!
May 13th, 2008 at 4:15 pm
Daniel,
I have taken Methadone for 2 years straight now for chronic pain. Unlike other opiates it is long lasting and is stored in the liver. From my own research, cold turkey withdrawal of any other opiate is 7-10 days. Pain first then sweats etc. If a long term Methadone user stops cold turkey I’ve heard that the withdrawal lasts 5-6 months. When I first read that, I couldn’t believe it. But it seems to be verified from several sources. I don’t know how severe they are that whole time, but that is a long time! I also agree that they do want to make money because they should try to taper you off little by little and it seems many of them don’t. If in liquid form even 1 drop every few days would be something. I’ve also heard of many taking 80mg+ of Methadone. I take 40mg a day for my pain. However 10mg are more than enough to stop withdrawal indefinitely. I would need 180mg/day of Oxy or 200mg/day of Morphine to keep withdrawal away. I hope that gives you a little different perspective even though a lot of what you said was right on. Take care!
May 14th, 2008 at 4:26 am
I just went through detoxing myself, recovering from a relapse after one year clean. The relapse lasted three months. I was doing about 1/2 gram - 1 gram of H a day (well, most days) and I just kicked using 70mgs methadone over a two-day period.
Last Saturday morning, I took three, 10mg pills at the first sign of withdrawal, which happened to be occurring right when I woke up. About 45 minutes later I felt just fine, except for the sleepy effect that methadone has on me (never feel any sort of buzz, like some people, no matter how much I take, and I’ve taken 200mg at once before without so much as slightly nodding off [a different feeling than the sleepy effect] - but I digress). 12 hours later, when I felt a tiny twinge of withdrawal seeping back in around the corners, I took two more 10mg pills. Slept wonderfully that night with vivid dreams.
Sunday morning, when I woke up I felt like I was starting to catch a cold (rather than the flu), so I took one more 10mg pill. Later that evening, I took one more 10mg pill with dinner, and again slept wonderfully. The following morning, this past - or is it “passed” - Monday, I felt fine when I woke up and took no pills. For the rest of the day, and all the way to the present moment (It is 2:21 a.m. Wednesday morning; I am a writer who keeps weird hours, so, no, I’m, not up because of insomnia.) I have not experienced anything even slightly resembling withdrawal and have not taken any more methadone.
So, for the record, I had a .5 to 1 gram-a-day H habit and I just kicked using 70mg of methadone.
This seems to prove to me that A) detox centers, although they provide invaluable services and resources that do a great amount of good for people who really need it, seem to be running a business with a business model focused on generating revenues from repeat customers, and B) a lot of the detox experience is in your head as it relates to H withdrawal. I say this because I know a lot of people who cannot function without a minimum of 70mg methadone while kicking.
May 14th, 2008 at 10:21 am
Again, I want to be clear that I think detox centers, like the one maintaining this Web site!!!, are a wonderful thing that do a lot of good for people, their families and the community as a whole. I don’t want to sound like I am of the opinion that they are scamming people, or are just another profit-driven medical bureaucracy.
My criticism is of the medical community’s defined approach to methadone maintenance. There is no reason to keep people on methadone for a minimum of 60 days, and then begin tapering them off if their doctor thinks it’s a good idea (this is the approach they take at a clinic in Portland, Ore. I spoke to regarding admission into their program.). While the cost of treatment, $10 a day, is great and makes it possible for addicts to clean up without needing a substantial amount of cash, that approach is simply switching one addiction for another.
And CJ, who posted a reply above, is right on saying it can take months to completely withdraw from methadone - I’ve seen someone go through it, and the ongoing depression they experienced looked like it was the most painful part of the entire process.
Still, having said all of this, I continue to wonder “the secret,” so to speak (I know there really isn’t one) of getting through those days when cravings hit so bad it’s like getting caught in a tornado - one minute you’re living your life doing whatever and the next minute you’re sucked up into a twister that just descended upon you, almost without warning, one that either picks you up and flings you into a totally new and sometimes foreign environment, or that one that’s always in the back of your mind but you pray to God you never experience - the one that sends you spinning into eternal blackness.
May 14th, 2008 at 11:25 am
That’s an interesting experience, Daniel. It’s amazing how many diverse experiences there are in relation to detox and opiate addiction. It must make it really difficult for the medical community to define a standard of treatment when everything is so relative, individualized and personal. Thanks for sharing your story, Daniel. Check back in and let us know how you feel in a few days, a week, as this process continues.
May 16th, 2008 at 3:47 pm
Thank you Daniel for posting your experience,it makes me realize how different everyone reacts to drugs and how different their bodies and minds act while detoxing. I dropped from 100mg. of methadone to 60mg. overnight. I felt absolutely no withdraws, however now I’m down to 20mg. It has taken me 4 months to get to this. i just started feeling discomfort at 30 mg., but only slightly. I really believe that your mind is a powerful thing because I made a decision to get off this horrible drug myself. When all you can think about day and night is methadone, thats crazy. I’m a widow with teenagers and couldn’t let this drug take over my life. Which at that point it had. I was put on methadone for pain management, for back and neck pain. When I asked my Dr. for help getting off this drug that he, yes he put me on said; I’m sorry I don’t prescribe those type of drugs. But he’ll prescribe methadone to people. Methadone has destroyed my teeth, I can’t imagine what its done to my bones and overall health. I have 20mg. to go and I’m doing it on my own and i will succeed because I want off now! Anyone who reads this don’t ever take methadone for pain take something else. Your Dr’s don’t tell you what it does to your body. trust me it’s awful. I sat the waiting room last week discussing what effects its had on other methadone patients. I know it’s going to get rough now that I’m getting close to being off. Anyone have any suggestions that I can apply to my detoxing myself?
May 16th, 2008 at 5:16 pm
I would like this website to publish exactly how suboxone is administered. This would help my situation because i have a dependency on Oxycontin but no health insurance or expendable income. I work constantly, own a home, and a car. No one knows of this dependancy and i would like to keep it that way. I cannot afford the upfront costs of treatment but can obtain suboxone for 10 - 20 dollars a pill. So my question would be: at this approximate price would it be cost effective to carry out a self-treatment process as i continue my daily life?
May 25th, 2008 at 8:35 pm
To Daniel and your May 14 2008 entries. I would kick an “H” habit any day of the week compared to a methadone kick. I was on methadone for 10 years. 10 years of lies from couselors, staff and directors.
For ANYBODY considering methadone as a recourse to get your life back together hear this, methadone is hard to get off of. I don’t care if you taper. I’m still hurtin BAD and I tapered to 30 from 65
and walked out of the clinic. I was told by the director when I started that methadone is alot easier to get off of than “H”.LIE!!!
I’d like to give them one night of he pain I’m STILL going through. I left 2 weeks ago. Check out Suboxone, ask probing, intrusive questions. Then ask more questions.This is for your LIFE!
Ten years of methadone got me, kicked off a high paying job, the loss of my next job because the methadone pump broke down two Saturdays in a row….goodby job I just started. Wife wants attention..nnaaahh…I’m a Methadonian…I sleepy… me want nappy.
It put me in a 10 year coma and I just wakin up and I hotter than a two dollar pistol! If I help anybody please,please be aware.There’s an alternative now. If you can’t stay clean and your going to damage yourself and the people you love and love you, check out the Suboxone first.Methadone turned me from a hard charger to half a man and half a father. I’m 50. Hurt,sick and tired. This is the last round, a knife fight in a phone booth. I will NEVER return to that poison. I’ve hurt so bad during these withdrawals that I ask God to kill me because I don’t have the balls to do it myself. It wiil be stay clean with nothing or Suboxone.
June 21st, 2008 at 8:42 pm
I fit the discription of Billy. Im terrified to have my addiction filed in medical files or anywhere where else that could possibly put me in a stereotype that could jeopardize future jobs, insurance denials etc. but Im sooo ready to get off the oxy. Sub is available to me from the street and I want to try it on my own in fact I could possibly take some freinds with me to kick this disqusting habit. anyone have any tips or explaination why the administering process of the sub is not more public? Please help. I really want off
June 22nd, 2008 at 6:30 pm
I’ve been suffering from chronic pain for 12 years, being treated by my primary care physician with pain meds. He has said all along that since I refuse to take needles in my back or neck that there was no reason to send me to the pain management clinic…until 2 weeks ago. I thought, no problem because I was tired of feeling like I had a ball and chain around my ankle anyway. The Doctor at the pain management treated me like a junkie from the moment I walked in the door. He said they do shots and they don’t prescribe pain meds. He also prescribed methedone 5 mg 1 time a day and gave me a 60 day supply because he said he wanted to ” Clean me up ” and see how bad my pain was without the oxycodone I have been taking. My primary care phy. had me on 7.5-500 percocet 5 times a day. Is 5mg of meth even enough to stop the withdrawls?
My question for anyone who has been in my position is, do I have to go back thru all that again and is there a way to just use the meth I have to get off the oxycodone or should I even start taking the meth? I’m so confused with all I’ve read, I just don’t want to trade one addictive drug for another that sounds even worse that what I have been taking.