Suboxone Users - Please answer these questions

I have never taken Sub im on methadone maintaince but i have read alot about it. Do you get it prescribes or did you get it on your own. I hear less is more meaning the less you take the more affective and when your just starting you take 2 mgs at a time wait like 20 mins if your not feeling better take another 2 mgs. Also i know you have to be in with drawls when you take it for the first time or it will put you in with drawls most ppl i know wait atleast 12 hours after there last dose of tehre drug if not 15 hrs of they can wait it out. The longer the better. Also i would if you could take the first day off of work to see how it hits ya. And i believe Tram is also a addictive drug and also has withdrawls so i wouldnt bother but youd have to take to a Dr about that.
Hope i helped alittle but im not a exspert Hopefully someone else that has first hand exsperiance with it and can help you out with anything else.
Alicia

Hey everyone~
I am currently 41 days clean of Lortabs (my drug of choice) because of Subutex. This medication comes in 2 forms...Subutex (buprenorphine) and Suboxone (same as Subutex, but has an extra ingredient (Nalaxone) for misuse. In other words, on Suboxen if you take a pain pill, you won't feel anything. The Nalaxone covers all the brain receptors, so no Opiate can penetrate. In a way, this is a very helpful tool if you're afraid you might slip up and take your doc...because you would strictly be wasting your time and money. It can also send you into immediate withdrawals.
About drinking on it...my doctor says it's okay as long as you don't over due it...ie..get drunk.
I've been taking Lexapro (SSRI Antidepressant for 2 years) and my doctor told me stay on it. So far I've had no problems.
As for pain, Sub is an opiate 50 times stronger than Morphine, so your pain will be covered. Should be no need to take anything else.
As far as going to work the next day...as long as your dose is not too high for you, you will be more than fine to go to work.
Most doctors tend to start patients too high with this drug. It is soooo much better to start lower and increase if needed. Starting too high will only make you sick and it takes a while for this drug to wear off...as it has an extremely high half life.
If anyone here is interested, go to the featured conditions section of this forum and click on painkiller addiction. From pages around 135 and up are a lot of Sub stories, questions and answers. Last week my doctor sat here with me and answered questions and gave some advice.

Please check that out...there is a LOT of Sub info under "painkiller addiction"

Hello, I have a question. Next wednesday my husband has an appointment to go on the Suboxen. Right now he's still taking his Narcotics. Does he need to completely be off of them when he goes to his appt.? He is still taking them so that way he's able to still work without feeling bad from the withdrawls. Should he just try to quit cold turkey a day or so before his appt.??

With any type of narcotic (especially alcohol or psilocybin as these generate effects because they are poison) you should use extreme caution when on any other type of medication. The only way to know for certain is to ask a physician about it. The have (or should) a good knowledge about what they are giving you and if it is potentially dangerous to mix it with any types of chemicals.
Now, a normal doctor will probably tell you you can't or shouldn't take anything else as it is detrimental to your health anyways so ask them if there are any chemicals that cannot be mixed with your current medication.
If they don't mention alcohol make sure you bring it and anything else you take or are thinking of taking as they may assume you don't use or forget to mention it. (more so with illicit substances then with alcohol)

Statik ~ I was wondering if you would mind answering a few questions I have.

~ Did you taper your methadone or did you jump off at 40mg.?

~ How were you feeing by day five, or even how were those five days overall?

~ When you did the actual swap and took your first doses of Sub. how did they do that? Did they give a few mg. and wait to see how it worked etc...?

I would really love to hear as much detail as you feel comfortable about sharing in terms of how the entire process went...kinda a step by step.

I totally understand and will not be offended at all if you decide that you don't really want to get into the nitty gritty of it right now!!

~Syd

Lexapoo ~ When you say that going to the suboxone was a mistake what exactly happened? One thing I noticed is that you said you only waited 24hrs. to start the suboxone. You may have had a problem with that because the half life of methadone is much larger than that. Most people that I have heard that did the jump from methadone to suboxone have been made to wait at the LEAST three day (72 hours) and if possible four days. What happened with the suboxone that you did not like?? Was it the switch or was it something else?? I ask because I have thought of trying it myself and it seems like a lot of people have been sugar coating and "pushing" subox as the way to go so I am very interested in what went wrong for you... Any details you are willing to give would be great and by the way CONGRATS on your taper. Only 4mg now. Your a rock star!! Great Job. And you say you have had little to no withdrawal in your taper, correct? WOW!!

I've been on suboxone for less than a month and it has proven to be everything I expected. I don't get "high" as I did with methadone or other opiates but I do not experience any craving either. I feel as though I got my life back.

I specifically asked my doctor, what medications are contraindicated with Suboxone. He said, really there aren't any medications that you can't take while on Suboxone - even other opiates (but don't expect to feel anything). I asked about emergencies that require a higher level of analgesic help that Suboxone can - i.e., morphine, demerol, etc... he told me to read the card that I was given to carry with me at all times, should something happen and I am unable to respond. The card reads that should I be in a situation requiring stronger pain relief than suboxone (which is a partial agonist, therefore, not as effective for pain as methadone, morphine, etc.), the medical professionals should know that I am on Suboxone because it will require double or more, the normal amount required to forcibly supplant the suboxone.

I specifically asked about tramadol because of headaches - tramadol is the best thing for headaches that I've ever found, plus I cannot take NSAIDs and acetaminophen is like a sugar pill. He was hesitant but suggested that I try 1 with caution and go from there - i.e., listen to my body. Tramadol is contraindicated with methadone because it has an observed weak opiate activity which is actually never been absolutely proven as far as I have been able to discover - just observed, but current literature says that it "could" precipitate withdrawals. However, I took Tramadol with Methadone because the 2 together seemed to prolong my Methadone affects. Go figure... I am on Cymbalta and Adderall and experience no problems. Of course the Suboxone prescribing doctor knows everything that I take regularly and intermittenly. Suboxone has a benefit over Subutex with the naxolone in that you cannot overdose on Suboxone. All that said, I would like to try Subutex alone - which you can overdose on - but could feel the full effect of the buprenorphine HCL, even though it is a partial agonist.

Like someone else on this list, I started too early after my methadone - 3 days between 80 mgs/day of Methadone and Suboxone. It took 2 days for me to gain stability. As time goes by (now into week 3), it gets better and better.

...the adderall, which I have been on for a couple of years, seems to amplify the suboxone. That was unexpected. I told my doctor who wants to monitor that over time and possibly pull my adderall back. He didn't like that but I told him that I did like that - didn't help much! So, I know now that I should learn when to keep my mouth shut! LOL