Buprenorphine Detox
Buprenorphine maintenance is a path to breaking free of heroin and pain pills (opiates), but how to break free of buprenorphine maintenance?
Buprenorphine and MAT
Buprenorphine (including brands like Suboxone, Subutex), and other drugs are essential tools for substance abuse treatment, when administered by a medical professional as part of an approved heroin or opiate/opioid addiction treatment program.
Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT) is one approach to treating heroin addiction. With MAT, heroin or opiates are replaced with buprenorphine ("replacement therapy").
With MAT, an illicit drug is replaced with a controlled pharmaceutical (buprenorphine). This removed risk and helps stabilize the life of an addict, now under the care of a monitoring physician.
The substance addiction is not removed, however, which leads most MAT patients to eventual seek detox from buprenorphine, as the first step of working towards living sober instead of addicted.
About Subutex, Suboxone, & Buprenorphine
Subutex is a brand name for buprenorphine, usually prescribed in tablet form, to be dissolved under the tongue (sublingual).
Suboxone is a commercial drug name. Suboxone contains buprenorphine combined with naloxone, an opioid antagonist. Once Subutex was in use as a maintenance drug for opioid dependence, it was similarly abused by snorting and injecting to get high. Naloxone is an inhibitor that can blocal opioid receptors.
The combination of naloxone and buprenorphine was branded Suboxone, is also administered sublingually (placed under the tongue).
Help is Available Right Now
A medical detox from buprenorphine is available right now. Complications from additional medications or alcohol are common, and will be addressed at the same time.
Dual-diagnosis, the situation involving additional problems that are concurrent (various mental or physical health issues) is available at most medical detox centers.
Buprenorphine News Update:
The FDA has approved a new injectable formulation of biprenorphine, known as the brand name drug Sublocade. Sublocade is considerable more expensive than Suboxone (the sublingual formulation of buprenorphine). Injectable Sublocade has been approved for once-per-month injections.
Other brand names for prescription buprenorphine
Buprenorphine is sold as Cizdol, Suboxone, Subutex, Temgesic, Buprenex, Norspan and Butrans. In Europe buprenorphine is sold in transdermal (skin patch) format as Transtec.