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Suboxone Treatment: Risks and Benefits

April 8th, 2013 - In Drug Treatment, Suboxone

Why Get Suboxone Treatment

When someone suffers from opioid dependence, such as a heroin addiction, there are several options for

achieving freedom from this dependency such as suboxone treatment. Among the more popular treatments are substitutions. Addicted individuals treat symptoms of withdrawal from an opiate with another drug that is legally prescribed. Possible reliance on these drugs is easier to terminate. Suboxone is a drug recommended by many health officials to help addicts overcome withdrawal from opioid substances.

What Is Suboxone?

Another name for Suboxone is buprenorphine. It is used for a variety of reasons, including the treatment of chronic pain. It is semi-synthetic and can be administered in different ways.

Suboxone Treatment

Before beginning Suboxone treatment, patients and doctors need to review some possible sensitivities or complications that might be involved. Doctors need to know ahead of time if their patients suffer from any of the following issues:

• Asthma or other breathing issues
• Any disease of the liver
• An underactive thyroid
• Problems with urination
• Kidney Disease
• Adrenal gland disorders
• Past head injuries
• Mental illness
• Seizures
• Brain tumors

These complications will not necessarily disqualify patients from Suboxone treatment. Doctors can use the information to determine how effective treatment will be and how to gauge dosages in order to benefit patients the most.

Physicians usually prescribe doses of sublingual tablets. Before taking scheduled doses of this medication, patients should drink a glass of water to moisten their mouths. They are then expected to place the tablets beneath their tongues and allow them to dissolve.

An innovative new medicinal delivery system uses a Suboxone film. Patients have complained about the taste of the sublingual tablets and the amount of time that they take to dissolve completely. Suboxone film dissolves more quickly in your mouth and does not have as unpleasant a taste as the tablet form of the drug.

Patients taking any form of this medication should wear medical alert tags of some sort. They should also directly inform any health care provider of their prescription. This is a powerful drug that could complicate emergency treatments without proper warning.

Suboxone Side Effects

It is possible for patients to become addicted to this substance in place of the opiate to which they were first addicted. Clear and consistent communication with administering physicians is crucial for this reason. There are other possible Suboxone side effects. Some common issues include:

• Dizziness
• Difficulty in concentrating
• Numbness in extremities or in the mouth
• Insomnia
• Abdominal pain

Risks of Suboxone Treatment

Suboxone treatment use can also generate its own addiction. Some people use Suboxone for recreational purposes just as others might use heroin. For this reason, the initially high doses administered in the first few days of treatment are slowly lowered.

There are also significant Suboxone side effects that should be communicated to doctors immediately if they occur. These include shortness of breath, blurred vision and irregularities in the heart rate.

This is a powerful controlled substance that can do a lot of good. However, misuse of the drug can result in very dangerous Suboxone side effects. Patients should follow physician instructions carefully when receiving Suboxone treatment.