Suboxone Detox: What Is It?

Detoxification from a drug involves slowly reducing the amount of a drug in an attempt to avoid severe or dangerous symptoms. Alcohol, benzodiazepines (Xanax, Valium, Klonopin for example), and narcotic are drugs that people will seek medical assistance with detoxification.

Physical dependence is when an individual experiences withdrawal symptoms when suddenly stopping a medication. Theses symptoms may include tremors, high blood pressure, seizures, and even death. When a person has taken a narcotic for a long enough period of time, suddenly stopping the narcotic will lead to severe cravings, goosebumps, runny nose, diarrhea, stomach cramps, and sweating. The point in narcotic detoxification is to help limit these symptoms and, more importantly, avoid relapse.

Methadone and Suboxone (buprenorphine/Naloxone) are two drugs used fordetoxification from narcotic drugs. They are used if the person has been unable to reduce the drug they are taking on their own or with the supervision of their doctor. Typically, one is switched from the current drug (Oxycontin, Vicodin, or heroin) to Methadone or Suboxone and then the dose of the medication is slowly lowered.

Who should consider Suboxone detox?

If you can’t stop using heroin in any form.
If you have becomeaddicted to pain medications.
If you are experiencing dangerous side effects from narcotic pain medications.
If you are injecting narcotics in any form.
If you aresnorting narcotics in any form.

It used to be that people addicted to heroin were the main people needing detox. However, over the last decade, we have seen a number of younger and older patients seeking treatment because of being dependent on their pain medications. Remember, everyone will eventually become physically dependent to narcotics if they are taken long enough and at a high enough dose. However, not everyone becomes a true addict. The people who are physically dependent but not “addicts” do quiet well once they are detoxed from narcotics.

Suboxone Detox: An Alternative to Methadone? The nice thing about a suboxone detox is that it can bedone from your doctor’s office. Previously, one had the choice of having anarcotic detox in the hospital or going to a methadone clinic for detox. A Suboxone detox is generally easier on the patient than methadone and takes less time. Many people prefer going to a doctor of their choice, rather than a methadone clinic. If the patient and doctor decide to do a slow detox over many months, there are less office visits with a suboxone doctor. Suboxone (buprenorphine/naloxone) detox is considered a good alternative to methadone detox.

Narcotic Detox: How Fast To Reduce How fast the Methadone or the Suboxone is reduced depends on the what is best for each individual. The detox can be as short as five days to longer than six months. The more stable a person is in their personal, work, and social life, the faster the detox can be done. Has the patient relapsed numerous times in the past during or after detox?How long have they been using narcotics? Are they on other drugs of addiction? Do they have other psychiatric problems like depression? How much legal trouble are they have? Theses factors need to be considered by the patient and discussed with their doctor before undergoing methadone detox or Suboxone detox.

Suboxone Detox: What to expect The amount of opiate withdrawal symptoms that people experience during Suboxone detox varies from individual to individual. Generally, the higher the dose you are starting from and the faster one reduces the medications, the more withdrawal symptoms that will be experienced. Even with the aid of Suboxone or Methadone, most people will experience significant withdrawal symptoms. During narcotic withdrawal, my experience is people have the most problems with theinsomnia, abdominal cramps, diarrhea, and cravings. The National Pain Foundation has a nice pdf summary regarding the sympoms and ways to help deal with them. This document can be found Here. There are a number of medications that can be used to help deal with the withdrawal symptoms that accompany detox. They can be particularly helpful in getting sleep while going through detox in addition to reducing the diarrhea. Simply using methadone or Suboxone during the detox with a slow reduction will help reduce the cravings and cramping.

Suboxone Detox: Where Can I find One? Any traditional psychiatric center can provide a suboxone detox. This can be done in an inpatient setting, a partial hospitalization setting, or in an outpatient setting. There are several Suboxone (buprenorphine) treatment directories available on the we that will help you find a center or doctor in your area.

Suboxone Detox Summary: Methadone and Suboxone are medications that are used for detoxification in those people wanting to get off their narcotic medications or illicit narcotic drug use. The narcotic withdrawal symptoms can be alleviated with a variety of medications and vary depending on the speed of detox. Suboxone doctors and Methadone treatment centers are readily available and can be found through one of the many doctor and treatment center directories online.

FEAR OF GETTING OFF SUBOXONE® – Fear no longer…. here is the way out. – www.NewBeginningsDetox.com 877-DETOX88 Suboxone® is useful in the treatment of opiate dependency. New Beginnings Recovery Center in Palm Beach Florida specializes in treating patients that have become dependant on Suboxone® that now desire to be completely drug free. We have seen that many practitioners are quick to Rx patients on Suboxone®, but lack skill when it comes to helping patients get off it after being on it for some time. The Post Acute Withdrawal Symptoms (PAWS) can be quite troublesome. Special skills are required by practitioners to safely and comfortably withdraw from Suboxone®. At NBRC, we have refined a detox protocol the allows a patient to jump off Suboxone® and have all symptoms, both acute and post acute minimalized. Suboxone® withdrawal tends to be for a longer duration and the PAWS period seems to more intense than other short acting opiates. Because of this fact we have modified our typical opiate detox protocols to address these differences. The goal of the Suboxone® detox treatment is to reduce the length of the PAWS and reduce the level of intensity of the symptoms. We use various medications that reduce or eliminate acute withdrawal symptoms and PAWS plus we give a series of vitamin injections to replace what has been depleted. This promotes brain health and increases overall well being and reduces cravings The use of Amino Acid Therapy to promote neuro-restoration (brain health) thus aiding in the healing process. We use various supplements …

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