Suboxone Detox Methods

People addicted to opiate drugs such as heroin and pain-relief prescription medications often require medication replacement therapy as part of the drug treatment process. Suboxone is one of a handful of medications used to treat opiate withdrawal effects for recovering addicts. While effective at relieving withdrawal effects, Suboxone is also an opiate-based drug. This accounts for the risk of addiction for people who receive Suboxone treatment for long periods.

Suboxone detox methods employ many of the same approaches used to treat opiate addictions, though some veer completely away from the medication replacement therapy approach. Suboxone detox treatment programs also offer a range of methods for helping recovering opiate addicts stay clean and sober.

Suboxone Effects

Counseling can help you overcome a Suboxone addiction!

Many people recovering from opiate addictions contend with withdrawal cravings that persist long after a person stops using. According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Suboxone’s use as a medication replacement therapy helps to ease a person’s withdrawal cravings without creating the euphoric effects or “high” produced by heroin or prescription drugs. The drug itself contains two active ingredients: buprenorphine and naloxone. The buprenorphine ingredient provides the opiate effect while naloxone prevents recovering addicts from trying to get “high” off the treatment by nullifying any potential “high” effects. Suboxone works as an alternative treatment to the standard methadone replacement therapy. 

Suboxone is designed as a long-acting drug with each dose remaining active in the body for up to three days. As an opiate-based medication, the potential for addiction to Suboxone increases the longer a person remains on the drug. As Suboxone produces effects similar to other opiates, the body grows to depend on the drug to function normally much like any other opiate addiction forms.

In effect, someone going through Suboxone detox starts all over again in terms of clearing the body of opiate materials and dealing with the withdrawal effects this brings.

Tapering

For people facing Suboxone detox, the notion of trying a medication replacement therapy treatment to help alleviate withdrawal symptoms may not sit so well considering their current predicament. Besides, people inclined to become addicted to Suboxone are most likely to become addicted to yet another replacement drug. Rather than go through the same treatment method again, many recovering addicts opt to taper off of Suboxone altogether under a doctor’s supervision.

As a Suboxone detox method, tapering involves gradually reducing drug dosage amounts over months or even years depending on the severity of the addiction. In this way, Suboxone detox withdrawal symptoms are greatly reduced while the body learns to function without opiate drug effects altogether.

Suboxone Detox Treatment Programs

Because many Suboxone addictions result from past medication therapy methods, Suboxone detox treatment programs take an individualized approach to treating Suboxone addictions. Depending on the extent of the addiction, psychotherapy, group work and medication to treat specific withdrawal symptoms may be administered.

Some treatment programs do offer alternative medication replacement therapies, such as naloxone and naltrexone. Both naloxone and naltrexone are narcotic medications that eliminate the body’s physical cravings for Suboxone. In terms of addiction potential, neither naloxone nor naltrexone carries a risk for addiction.