Managing
Opiate Withdrawal Symptoms With Suboxone
Government
Left Heroin Addicts Hopeless
 For
almost a century, detox
centers and doctors have been limited in their ability to
help opiate (heroin, Vicodin, Oxycontin, Percocet, morphine, Codeine,
Demerol, Fentanyl, etc.) addicts. The "Harrison Narcotic
Act of 1914" was designed as a tax act, but was interpreted
by the Supreme Court to prohibit the prescription of opiates to
opiate addicts, even if for treatment. Thereafter, the tapering
of opiate dosage to ease the pain of withdrawal was illegal, leaving
opiate
addicts feeling hopeless about ever getting off of their opiate
of choice. Until recently their has almost always been a healthy
stigma attached to opiate addiction. Not only society's general
consenses was "Once a heroin addict, always a heroin addict."
Even opiate addicts themselves, also felt that it was useless
to attempt to detox, because heroin addicts just don't get clean.
Methadone Misunderstood
The
one exception to the "Harrison Act" was and still is
Methadone. When used properly, Methadone can be an effective replacement
drug for heroin. However, the idea of maintaining addicts on a
substitute drug led the Federal Government to restrict methadone
so tight that the drug can only be prescribed by special Methadone
clinics. These clinics vary widely in the quality of care they
provide. In addition, Methadone causes euphoria (a high), which
quite frankly, a large number of heroin addicts thought was as
pleasurable as heroin or maybe even better. It also was legal,
therefore easily accessable at the clinic each day, so many detox
clients thought, "Why not get on the maintenance program,
what's the harm?
The
harm is, methadone maintenance clients eventually reach a daily
dose and/or a length of time addictted to the powerful, long acting
and very addictive, synthetic drug, where it is nearly impossible
to ever successfully detox from the Methadone, as it's withdrawal
symptoms have been reported to be 10 times more severe than heroin
detox symptoms, with some of the later, less severe symptoms
lasting sometimes as long as 3 to 4 months in duration, compared
to the 7 to 10 days of symptoms that an average heroin addiction
can produce. The combination of these factors has limited the
effectiveness of Methadone not only for maintenance, but has also
rendered methadone almost useless for detoxification purposes.
Suboxone - A Pain Free Opiate Detox
The
"Drug Abuse Treatment Act of 2000" reversed the "Harrison
Act's" restrictions and allows DEA approved physicians to
prescribe Suboxone for opiate addicts to ease the severe withdrawal symptoms
opiate detox can produce. Suboxone is a combination of buprenorphine
and naloxone. The buprenorphine masks these severe withdrawal
symptoms to the extent that it provides a nearly pain-free opiate
detox for all opiate substances. Whereas opiates like heroin,
Oxycontin, Vicodin, Codeine and even Methadone are opioid receptor agonists - meaning they fully bind opioid
receptors - buprenorphine is a partial opioid receptor agonist.
Naloxone was added to Suboxone to prevent the misuse of the medication.
In proper dosage, this gives Suboxone the ability to relieve the
symptoms of opiate withdrawal symptoms without producing the euphoria (high)
of the full agonist drugs like Methadone.
The
patient is normally stabilized (determine the dose of Suboxone
that makes the patient comfortable) in 24-48 hours after induction
and experiences very little, if any discomfort during stabilization.
Then, he or she is titrated (stepped down) to no drugs over the
next 7-12 days.
Finally,
physicians and detox
centers can use Suboxone to provide a safe and comfortable
detox for opiate addicted patients, making "cold-turkey"
heroin, Vicodin, Oxycontin and methadone detox a thing of the
past.
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