Jumping off 150mg methadone - 5 days without a dose - can I take Subutex yet?

[elcapitano]

I am in a tough position, out of state, and cannot get home to my clinic for another 10 days. For reasons beyond my control, I lost about half of my monthly take-home doses. I have not had any methadone in 120 hours (5 days). I have been using OC80's to keep the with-drawl symptoms down, but this has been mostly ineffective.

I am presented with a situation where I can get true Subutex (NOT Suboxone). Can I take it? Will it make my symptoms worse or will it stop them at this point? I was told I was a fast metabolizer, and I am pretty much convinced there is very little if any methadone left in my system.

Please respond asap, so that I can make an informed decision.

[newyorkgal]

I disagree. There is still meth in your system. The halflife of methadone is about 36 hours. Usually you would get down to under 30 mgs., wait 72 hours until you're in moderate to severe withdrawal then start sub. Are you just using them as a temporary thing until you get home and back on methadone? If you are taking any opiate, you need to wait until you are in withdrawal before starting sub, either suboxone or subutex, or you will go into total withdrawl.

[me!]

The info the poster above gave you was for SUBOXONE not subutex. Subutex does not contain the naloxone that suboxone contains. It is an opiate only not an opiate with an opiate antagonist. The naloxone is the reason why you have to wait and be in actual withdrawals before you take SUBOXONE. SUBUTEX does not contain this medication.

Having said that, if you have found yourself in an honest situation that is out of your control, I suggest you talk to your clinic and tell them what is going on. If you are telling the truth about what has happened to your take homes, then that is the route I suggest you take. You should not take any chances being on that high of a dose of methadone.

When you realized you were "short" on your doses, you should have taken a dose one day and skipped the next, taken one the next day and skipped the next and so on. That would have been much more tolerable than trying to go so many days with NO methadone at all. But again, I think you should talk to your clinic or an actual doctor before taking any other medication while you are on methadone.

Methadone stays in your system much longer than other opiates so you will still have some in your system weeks after your last dose and that is why the withdrawals can go on for months even after your last dose.

Don't mess around and end up killing yourself, be honest and upfront with your clinic, EVEN IF you did take the take outs yourself, I would tell them. It is much better to tell them and deal with the consequences than to be suffering that much.