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Suboxone Therapy

Every year, pain relievers containing opioid-based ingredients are abused. Did you know that roughly 4.7 million people, ages 12 and older, have misused pain relievers in 2003? How wide spread is abuse of pain relievers, including the use of non-opioid based medications? Consider this: Misuse of medications for non-medical use has increased 335% since 1990, when 573,000 people admitted using pain relievers for recreational purposes.

What is Suboxone Therapy?

It is the first opioid medication used to treat opioid dependence in an office setting. It can also be prescribed, dispensed by a certified physician and taken at home.

How does Suboxone Therapy work?

Unlike pain medications, Suboxone Therapy partly binds to the opioid sensors in the brain and the central nervous system. By partly binding to these sensors, Suboxone blocks pain. This allows patients to experience pain relief and also not have to worry about becoming dependent on a medication. This means Suboxone can help reduce illegal opioid use, help patients stay in treatment for an opioid-based addiction, suppress symptoms of withdraw and reduce cravings for opioid-based medications.

Can I develop a dependence on Suboxone?

As with any opioid-based medication, patients can experience withdraw symptoms. Patients should not abruptly stop taking Suboxone. However, Suboxone may safely be used for long-term and short-term treatment dependency on opioid-based medications.

Is Suboxone a new drug on the market?

Suboxone has been used in Europe since the mid-1990s. In the U.S., Buprenorphine has been available as Suboxone since 2003. To date, 400,000 patients worldwide have been treated for opioid dependency using Suboxone. Patients can consult their doctor if they think Suboxone may help treat their dependency.

What makes Suboxone Therapy different from other treatments?

Suboxone contains at least two drugs. It contains a partial opioid agonist and an opioid antagonist. An opioid antagonist doesn’t bind to pain receptors in the brain or nervous system and can displace other opioids like an opioid agonist does. However, the patient won’t feel the effects of the antagonist if a pill is dissolved under the tongue. This is because very little of the opioid antagonist reaches the bloodstream. Suboxone cannot be delivered through injection. In injected, Suboxone will act as an opioid. Since the antagonist in Suboxone displaces opioids, it will cause a person who is fully dependent on opioids to go into withdrawal. This makes it harder for individuals to abuse Suboxone. However, Suboxone can still be abused; if taken with other opioid-based medications.