Substitution treatment for drug addiction is based on replacing the drug of choice with a one that mimics its actions in the body and the brain. You trick the body into thinking that a less harmful drug is the drug of choice so that you don’t go into withdrawal. Meanwhile, you are, in essence, trading down your addiction to a drug that doesn’t tear up your body as badly or carry the risks that other methods of drug ingestion might. The two that do the job: methadone and buprenorphine in the form of Subutex and Suboxone.

Since the mid-1960s, methadone has been the substitution drug of choice for those addicted to opioid-based drugs like prescription painkillers and street drugs like heroin. Highly regulated, it must be taken in its liquid form, supervised by a clinic devoted to treating drug addiction only. It is generally a maintenance-type treatment, meaning that those who use it as a way of regulating their addiction may stay on it for years, even the rest of their lives and if they do detox off of it, they do so slowly, milligram by milligram.

Buprenorphine, on the other hand, does not chain the person trying to detox off of drugs to a clinic or a treatment center. No daily trips to get your dose, pee tests to monitor drug usage and mandatory counseling sessions and treatment plan meetings. With buprenorphine, you can take your prescription home just like you would with any other. Your treatment plan is created during your one and only appointment and you are trusted to follow it on your own. Generally, you are given one prescription with a plan outlined in which you take less and less of the drug until you are free from both it and your original drug of choice.

It’s not hard to see why buprenorphine is a preferable form of detox. Not that methadone doesn’t have its place; it certainly does. But for those who are ready to get rid of substances in their lives once and for all, the most efficient way to do so is through a Suboxone treatment.  Says Dr. Alan I. Leshner, a former director of the National Institutes of Drug Abuse: “Buprenorphine is the most important advance certainly in heroin and opiate treatment if not all addiction treatments in the last 30 years.”

I’m inclined to agree.

If you like this post subscribe to the feed

"Methadone Versus Buprenorphine" posted in Addiction Recovery, Drug Rehab, Drug Withdrawal, Outpatient treatment, Prescription Drug Addiction, Suboxone, Suboxone Treatment, Subutex.
Subscribe: comments.