Is Suboxone medication assisted treatment for fentanyl and heroin addiction treatment just trading one addiction for another?

Suboxone is a brand name medication that contains two drugs: buprenorphine and naloxone. Buprenorphine is an opioid drug that both blocks opioid receptors and partially activates the opioid receptor at the same time.

Naloxone is included as an abuse deterrent to prevent Suboxone abuse. When Suboxone was first formulated, authorities were concerned about the potential for Suboxone addiction.

Is Suboxone an addictive drug? How addictive is Suboxone? Is there a dedicated Suboxone addiction treatment program to help people overcome buprenorphine addiction?

While it is true that Suboxone is an opioid drug, and it does cause physical opioid dependence, Suboxone addiction is likely a rare condition. Still, Suboxone does cause side effects when it is abruptly discontinued, and it can cause side effects during use, including constipation, Suboxone fatigue, insomnia, excessive sweating, difficulting urinating, and more.

The reason for Suboxone having a low addictive potential involves how buprenorphine interacts with receptors as a partial opioid agonist and a full opioid antagonist. Buprenorphine is unique among opiods for how it works at the receptor level.

Can Suboxone be addictive?

When someone stops taking Suboxone suddenly after taking it for at least a few weeks, they may get opioid withdrawal symptoms. As a result, they may assume that Suboxone is addictive.

What is Suboxone addiction? Is it when you get Suboxone withdrawal symptoms? Or is it only when you get an opioid craving during the withdrawal period?

The fact is that physical withdrawal symptoms are not the same as addiction. If a person has been taking buprenorphine in the form of Suboxone for a long period of time, and they stop and get withdrawal symptoms without cravings, they are not necessarily addicted to it.

Buprenorphine treatment is used to treat opioid use disorder, in conjunction with behavioral therapy. Buprenophine has a high affinity for opioid receptors, much higher than other opioids.

The high receptor affinity means that buprenorphine sits on the receptor much longer than fentanyl, heroin, oxycodone, and other opioids. This very different activity at the receptor is why buprenorphine does not cause tolerance and addiction in the same way as other opioids.

Is buprenorphine addictive on the streets?

In the early days of the Suboxone detox program, which began with a new law in 2000, there was concern over the possibility of buprenorphine abuse and addiction. The original brand for buprenorphine was Subutex, which, unlike Suboxone, did not contain naloxone.

Part of the fear of abuse came from the fact that methadone, another opioid used for opiate addiction treatment, has a high abuse and addiction potential. Methadone interacts with opioid receptors more similarly to addictive opioids.

Another significant contributing factor was that the company that makes products such as Subutex, Suboxone, and Sublocade has always been aggressive in protecting its patents and high prices for addiction treatment drugs. Indivior was once a subsidiary of the British company Reckitt Benckiser, and the company has worked hard to cook up schemes to prevent competitors from entering the market.

There have always been stories of prisoners smuggling in Suboxone melted into postage stamps and hidden in book bindings. Additionally, there have been stories of addicts in dark alleys shooting up melted Subutex tablets to get high.

Law enforcement groups get lectured by pharmaceutical reps about drug abuse problems. Often, the intent of such lectures is to influence them to support a particular brand name drug product that they claim will reduce the diversion and abuse of narcotics.

Can Suboxone cause addiction? The truth is more complex than the story we are told by big pharma propaganda.

In recent years, there have been studies to look at what happens when Suboxone is diverted and sold on the streets. Researchers wanted to find out people were buying Suboxone from drug dealers in order to get high.

Overwhelmingly, the results of such studies have consistently revealed that opioid addicts buy Suboxone on the street in order to self-detox. They are trying to quit fentanyl and other dangerous drugs.

If opioid abusers are taking illegally purchased Suboxone to treat their addiction, why not simply go to a Suboxone doctor or clinic? Unfortunately, our country, states, and local governments have not been supportive of making Suboxone available to people who need it.

Because of the harmful propaganda spread by big pharma and other groups, the damage has been done, leading many doctors to refuse to prescribe Suboxone and similar addiction treatment drugs. Additionally, organizations such as Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous have also slowed down access by telling meeting attendees that they are not clean and sober if they take Suboxone.

As a result of the undeserved bad reputation of Suboxone therapy, there are not enough clinics or doctors offering treatment. And, government agencies are not providing enough funding to existing clinics. Some states claim that Suboxone clinics are fueling the next wave of pill mills and that Suboxone providers are often greedy rogue doctors.

Are there Suboxone uses other than addiction treatment?

Can Suboxone be used for alcohol addiction or meth addiction? While some addiction specialists have tried prescribing buprenorphine/naloxone for these substance use disorders, it is not indicated for any drug addiction other than opioid use disorder.

Buprenorphine is used for treating chronic pain conditions. While Suboxone is only indicated for the treatment of opioid dependence, buprenorphine is marketed under other brand names and in other forms for pain treatment.

For example, the Butrans patch contains buprenorphine for the treatment of chronic pain. The patch is worn by the patient for seven days per patch.

There have been other proposed uses of buprenorphine, based on its unique effects on the central nervous system and body. For example, the drug works on the kappa opioid receptors as a receptor blocker, which helps with anxiety and depression.

While it is possible that buprenorphine could provide significant benefits to people suffering from mental health issues, such as depression or anxiety, it is unlikely that any doctor will prescribe the drug for these conditions. Since buprenorphine is an opioid and causes physical opioid dependence, doctors tend to avoid considering using it for any purpose other than addiction treatment or chronic pain treatment.

Why is Suboxone so addictive that patients who take it for over a year cannot stop taking it?

Again, it is important to distinguish physical dependence from addiction. If the patient gets opioid withdrawal symptoms when reducing their Suboxone dosage, but they do not get opioid cravings, the issue is physical dependence, not addiction.

It is generally recommended that patients continue Suboxone therapy for at least one year after quitting an opioid such as fentanyl, heroin, or misuse of pain pills. When the doctor and patient agree that the patient is ready to stop taking Suboxone, they should agree upon a tapering plan to gradually reduce Suboxone.

Gradual tapering helps to prevent issues with Suboxone withdrawal symptoms. The tapering process should be gradual, and the final dosage before the dropoff should be as low as possible.

Some patients are tapered to dosages as low as 1/16th of a milligram daily. It is also possible for the doctor to instruct every other day dosing or even every third day.

While quitting Suboxone is not always easy, it is always possible. It is important that the prescribing doctor keeps in mind the individual patient’s unique tapering needs. Some patients are prepared to taper more quickly than others.

As the medical community becomes more comfortable with the use of buprenorphine for treating opioid use disorder, doctors are becoming more willing to prescribe Suboxone for opioid addiction. Physicians are discovering that the addictive potential of Suboxone is low, and there are many benefits to treating opioid addiction with Suboxone.

If you are looking for a Suboxone doctor in Hollywood, FL, Fort Lauderdale, or anywhere in the South Florida region, please contact us using the contact form on this website. We are experienced in helping patients to taper gradually off of Suboxone with minimal discomfort from Suboxone withdrawal symptoms.