Buprenorphine, Suboxone or Subutex – Which Do You Need?
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If you are addicted to opiates, do you need to take buprenorphine, Suboxone or Subutex – and what's the difference between these anyway?
Buprenorphine is an opiate, actually it's a partial opiate agonist (kind of like an opiate that doesn’t work that well) and it is the active "opiate" ingredient in both Suboxone and Subutex. Subutex and Suboxone are the only 2 FDA approved medications containing the opiate buprenorphine for use in the treatment of addiction.
Suboxone and Subutex – What's the Difference?
- Both are pills that you take sublingually (let dissolve under the tongue).
- Subutex is a pill that contains only one medicinal ingredient – buprenorphine
- Suboxone is a pill that contains 2 medicinal ingredients – buprenorphine and Naloxone – in a 4-1 ratio.
Why are they different?
When you start taking buprenorphine, you will likely start with a couple of days of induction. A couple of days during which time your body is growing accustomed to the switch from your drug of abuse to the buprenorphine, and during which time your doctor will be adjusting the dosage to get optimal results.
During this induction phase, Subutex is often used. Some doctors prefer to use only Suboxone from the start.
After the induction phase you will be given Suboxone, which is a mixture of 2 drugs, buprenorphine and Naloxone, and you will stay on Suboxone until you decide to stop buprenorphine therapy entirely. Subutex is used only in the beginning (or in some cases for people with unique medical needs).
Why Does Suboxone Contain Naloxone?
One of the main reasons why people prefer Suboxone to methadone is that Suboxone can be prescribed in a take home dose of several weeks or a month, while methadone must be taken under supervision in a clinic each day.
One of the main reasons why Suboxone can be taken home is because it contains Naloxone, and that Naloxone makes it a lot tougher to abuse.
Naloxone is an opiate antagonist. If you were to take only Naloxone, you would not be able to feel the effects of any opiate type drugs. If you took a dose of Naloxone and then took heroin – you would not feel the heroin.
Suboxone is taken sublingually. When the pill is dissolved under the tongue – the buprenorphine in the pill is absorbed into the body, but the Naloxone is not. Naloxone just doesn't work very well sublingually.
If you take Suboxone as directed, sublingually, the Naloxone does not work, and you only get the effects of the opiate buprenorphine.
But
If you try to abuse Suboxone by injecting it, then the Naloxone is completely activated, and will block all of the effects of the buprenorphine. If you inject Suboxone, the Naloxone will fill the opiate receptors in the brain and not only will you not get high – you will go into an immediate and full state of opiate withdrawal.
So
The Naloxone in Suboxone makes it less likely abused, and since you probably won't abuse it, there is no reason why you can't take home a few weeks supply at a time.
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Comments
Hello, I just read a posting you had written about how you were considering taking suboxone. Please take my advice on this as a person who has experienced this and is going through now as I type. Fuck the drug companies and whatever bullshit they try to tell you about taking suboxone longterm. Use it as a taper to come off oxy's. That is it. Taking two mgs everytime you start to feel sick for a week should be sufficient. It is a long lasting opiate so if you have a mild oxy addiction only take it when you physically feel sick then get off it as fast as possible. That is the way this drug was initially meant to be prescribed. No one ever told me that. Now the drug companies are marketing this as a longterm solution. It is not. Believe me you will feel good taking this drug for about six months, after that like any other drug tolerance will set in and you will need to take more and more of it just to get out of bed. No more taking one pill and feeling "normal" for two days. This process will happen fast and you will just continue to have to take more and more and more. Withdrawing from this shit is absolute hell. It will tkae you about six weeks just to not be in constant chilly bone grinding pain coupled with wild crying mood swings and terrible depressed thoughts. You will find yourself doing the dishes and crying uncontrollably for no reason. It is hell!!! After that you basically will feel numb for another month. No enjoyment from food, sex, whatever it is that blows your hair back, just gone. Nothing. I couldn't take that second month. With the alienating the people closest to you. Not being able to work worth a fuck. Gone. So I sit here tonight wondering how the fuck I am going to get off these pills that cost me 500 a month, that cost me food from my kids mouth. I am thinking about doing a reversal and going on oxys again for twenty days and then tapering with suboxone the way people are supposed too. We will see. The longer you take sub the more magnified all these things will become. If you can quit taking them now. Quit taking them now. Best of luck to you. Feel free to email me anytime I would be courious to know how you are doing with all of it.\ Sean
Sean is 100% percent correct i was lied to as well i used herion for 20 years but i have come to a stage in my life where i don't use nor i don't want to use anything. i CAN'T BELEIVE IT I HAVE DONR ALOT OF WORK THOUGH. Sean everything this man says is right well said Sean.
Just quit...
ITS NOT THAT EASY DOOSH
Jumper should "Just quit" breathing.
I disagree with all of y'all...Getting off the subs for me was ez as cake! I was abusing heroin for about 2yrs...and I went on Subutex for about 2 weeks, then switched over to Suboxone. I was on the Suboxone for about 1.5yrs and i just slowly tapered off, started at 24mgs...then went down to about 20, then to 16, then to 12 etc...Till i was all the way down to about .5mgs..The key is to TAKE YOUR TIME TAPERING! !!!!! Its not something you do in a month or two...It takes time to get off of them. If you take your time, its really easy. No pain whatsoever. On a 1-10 scale, 10 being day one off of full blown heroin addiction...Suboxone/Subutex withdrawal was less than a 1. I swear its easy if you do it correctly.
drembi you need to go to your doctors and ask for a course of antidepressants. This is supposed to help nothing else.
WOW!!!! Ok, I am on painpills for an injury, which the VA only seems to want to write meds for me and send me on my way. I can't get out of bed without some meds and I hate it. It's like living until the next dose. I also take care of my girlfriend who is ill with lupus and also has back injuries, just had surgery. I am now concerned about these meds to come off the pain meds, as I did not know that suboxone and subutex were long term, nor did I know that they were hard to come off of themselves!!!
thanks
peace
dawn
WOW!!!! Ok, I am on painpills for an injury, which the VA only seems to want to write meds for me and send me on my way. I can't get out of bed without some meds and I hate it. It's like living until the next dose. I also take care of my girlfriend who is ill with lupus and also has back injuries, just had surgery. I am now concerned about these meds to come off the pain meds, as I did not know that suboxone and subutex were long term, nor did I know that they were hard to come off of themselves!!!
thanks
peace
dawn
2yrs on heroin and i couldn´t do it anymore!! dont get me wrong i love that shit, but i´m poor as fuck and always have been, so i spent half of the time withdrawing...so i had to quit!!! on and off for about another year, last april i finally stopped, i started my treatment with suboxone because in portugal (where i live) subutex wasn´t available cuz people started shootin´it up, a couple of months ago the docs started prescribing subutex again cuz it is much much cheeper, and i have been using it for about 5 months now. it´s just another drug don´t let them trick you, and it is hard to get off, you have to be careful and only take as much as you need to feel confortable! i´m nothing but a fuckin´junkie so some days i only a quarter of a pill but then the nex day a take about 2 or 3 pill of subutex, it is not as ´good´ as junk but fuck it´s better than nothin!! i had never been sober for this long but i´m sure it won´t last...in no time i´ll be back at my old fuckin´ life.....best of luck for all of you....p.s forgive my writting, i´m portugese
fell free to email me. i would actually like it... monica.cndido@gmail.com
Sorry for the long post but my experience may help someone:
Last summer (2008), I had been on pain killers for almost 10 years for chronic pain but was on the max doses and building up a tolerance fast. I went to an addiction specialist and went on Suboxone which I've been on for over a year now and will probably have to use it until they figure out a cure for the pain (FMS). Suboxone handles the pain well but I've had two problems with it. First, I was getting really dizzy with nausea which I finally figured out it happens on doses over about 3mg (it takes about 3 days for me to see changes in side effects after changing Suboxone dosage). Second, although the pain has been managed well, my motivation and ability to experience even the slightest pleasure has remained rock bottom since getting off regular pain killers. It's a huge challenge each day to do even the simplest tasks like get up and shower. Unfortunately, I'm stuck because I've tried every alternative for the chronic pain and even switched back to pain killers a couple of months ago for one week to see if the tolerance I built up had decreased but no luck (my tolerance was as high as when I stopped regular pain killers). Suboxone/Subutex don't give you the dopamine high that regular pain killers and related drugs give you, so I'm pretty sure what happened with my motivation/pleasure is that once I stopped regular pain killers which artificially cranked my dopamine, my dopamine levels tanked and have stayed there on Suboxone. I've talked with some doctors close to the research and although they've done brain scans of heavy duty drug users (with a follow up a year after stopping drugs) show dopamine returns to normal even with heavy addicts after about a year off of drugs, there's no research to see if Suboxone somehow prevents dopamine levels returning which is what I suspect since it's been over a year for me so my dopamine (motivation and pleasure) should have returned to normal.
For me, I have not seen any need for raising my Suboxone dose so I'm not building up a tolerance like some have posted. As far as withdrawals from Suboxone after long term use, I can't say since I'm probably stuck on it indefinitely (no choice).
Hope this helps someone and sorry again for the long post...
I just started suboxone 2 -3 weeks ago after havoing my knee replaced and letting the doc's get me strung out on o/c
s. I've kep my does down and I'nd doind 6 mg/day right now. I want off this shiti nt way as it's main selling point for mme (no cravings) never has worked. Now I'm scared of the detox. Any comments, suyggestions? I'm using an addiction doctor for this shit who seems be somewhat cool, but you knvwer know....
Is subutex any easier to kick than soboxne?
queenie says:
9 months ago
Do none of them! you will want to die when you try to get off them