The National Alliance of Advocates
for Buprenorphine Treatment
Buprenorphine (Suboxone®, Subutex®) is an opioid medication used to treat opioid
addiction in the privacy of a physician's office.1 Buprenorphine can be dispensed
for take-home use, by prescription.1 This, in addition to the pharmacological
and safety
profile of buprenorphine, makes it an attractive treatment for patients addicted to opioids.2
Patient Stories
"I am approaching 3 months on Suboxone, and I have my life back."
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I got all the pills I could get out of my country doctor for a period of 3 months. By that time I was up to 20-25 10mg Percocet a day. My wife has been a pain-management patient all our marriage and for all those years I would never touch her medicine cause she truly needed it. After I became addicted, I lost control and began to take her drugs to keep the withdrawal away. This went on for about a year.
Then I found what I thought was a friend who kept me supplied for the next year, but cost was killing us financially. I tried many times to wean down, NEVER got very far. The time I would run out were like living a nightmare, it was awful. By this time I was up to about 200-250 mg of oxycodone a day. I would even wake up at night and need to dose so I could go back to sleep, I always hated that because I felt like I was wasting the drugs. I had more wean-down sheets than you could imagine, I tried everything.
Then during a family reunion I told a uncle about my back pain and asked him for some pills. He was a Vietnam vet who got blew up in Nam, He had all the drugs you could imagine and rarely took them, so he started supplying me with OxyContin® 40mg tablets. I didn't chew them at first – then I figured out they worked better if I chewed 2 or 3 at a time. This went on another 6 months, at least now I wasn't paying for the pills, they where free to me. Then I told my uncle the truth about my back and the fact that I was severely addicted to opiates. He had what I thought was my answer – METHADONE. It did stop my withdrawal, but within a year I was doing an average of 80mg per day. I always took enough to get high, when I would build a tolerance I would keep increasing. This whole time I told my wife my back needed pills so I could work.
About the first of March, 2006, my uncle passed away, and I was faced with no supply. I tried desperately to wean down, again it didn't work. I prayed so many times for God to deliver me from this horrible addiction. On 3-15-06 I went to a methadone clinic for help, At this time I just wanted to be under a doctor’s care, I was afraid I'd die sooner or later. The clinic wasn't taking any more patients but they did tell me about a medicine called Suboxone® and a doctor who would see me. I went home and called him and to my surprise he actually talked to me that day. He said I was on too high of a dose to switch to Sub, I told him I would do whatever it took.
He set up an appointment 10 days later and told me I had to be at 30mg or less for a week. I did everything he said, even thought I thought I would die. I was sick as a dog for over a week. I showed up for my appt 2 hours early that day and had every withdrawal symptom there is. I had lost 10lbs the week leading up to my appointment. He started my first dose at 4mg, I felt nothing, then he gave me another 4mg, still nothing. When we got to 16mg I still felt bad but told him I was ok. After I got home I called and took another 8mg. I stayed on 24mg the first week of treatment. I am approaching 3 months on Suboxone, and I have my life back. I've successfully dropped down to 10mg a day. I wish I would have found Suboxone a lot sooner but I’m not a computer person so I had no way to discover it other than God answering my prayer.
If you are out there stuck in addiction, I am living proof that this medicine works. My addictive behavior is long gone. I am doing things I never thought of while on drugs. This is a life-saving medicine – not a miracle pill – you still have work to do. But it is by far the best tool we have today to fight the disease of addiction. I wish some people I know that have died from overdose would have had the chance I did. Once I beat this monkey I will never feed him again, It feels so good not to be addicted to anything.
- U.S. Food and Drug Administration, FDA Talk Paper, T0238, October 8, 2002, Subutex and Suboxone approved to treat opiate dependence.
- Center for Substance Abuse Treatment. Clinical Guidelines for the Use of Buprenorphine in the Treatment of Opioid Addiction. Treatment Improvement Protocol (TIP) Series 40. DHHS Publication No. (SMA) 04-3939. Rockville, Md: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 2004.