What is Suboxone?
Since one of the major impediments to recovery from opiate addictions are painful withdrawal symptoms, suboxone was created to help ease these symptoms making for a smoother and more effective detoxification process. Suboxone is a prescription medication that is helpful in detoxifying from powerful opiates like heroin, oxycontin, vicodin, percocet, and morphine. Suboxone is a combination of two drugs, Buprenorphine and Naxalone, which help to ease withdrawal symptoms while reducing physical dependence on the drug. Naxalone also works to block any existing and future opiates that may come in the body, to ensure that the patient doesn’t use during the detoxification process.
Detoxification and Suboxone
The overall goal of any successful drug detox program is to completely remove any existing opiates from the body so that lasting changes in behavior can be addressed through additional drug treatment and behavioral therapy programs. This is why suboxone can be so effective in the detoxification process because suboxone gives the patient the needed relief from pain withdrawal symptoms so they can begin and complete the entirety of the detoxification program.
Managing the physical symptoms of opiate withdrawal is an extremely important aspect of the drug detox process. While opiate withdrawal symptoms are rarely life-threatening, except in cases of very poor health, they can be major deterrents to this process, and often cause patients to give up and start using again to find relief. By using Suboxone patients are stabilized, making detox far more bearable than without it. Using suboxone for a transition detoxification treatment makes the process far more likely to succeed, and gives the patient a far greater chance of full recovery.
How Suboxone is Administered
Suboxone can only be prescribed by a physician who is legally certified by the SAHHSA to administer suboxone. Suboxone is often administered in an anonymous outpatient setting and can last anywhere from a few weeks to a year or more. Each physician will look at each case individually to create the best suboxone detoxification for that individual. Doctors prescribing suboxone will administer suboxone in higher doses in the beginning to allow the user the appropriate relief. As the treatment goes on the doctor will taper down the dosage slowly weaning the patient off their opiate addiction. The doctor may also choose a rapid detox program that will be monitored by a physician generally taken while the patient sleeps. This allows for a quicker removal of opiates from the system but is generally only used in severe cases of opiate addiction.
