7 Day Treatment

How does this therapy differ from other Addiction Treatments?
Now approved for the treatment of opioid addiction in the USA, Buprenorphine (Subutex/ Suboxone) is another medication being used as a treatment for heroin addiction. Buprenorphine does not produce the same level of physical dependence as other opiate medications, such as methadone. Discontinuing buprenorphine is easier than stopping methadone treatment because there are fewer withdrawal symptoms. Because Bupernorphine does not produce the same pleasure sensations that traditional opiates do, there has been a rise in bupernorphine related overdoses in recent years. In a search to try and push this medications effect , which does not typically produce a pleasure sensation or "rush" like Heroin does, the user will ingest a high amount of Bupernorphine. When this happens the user will not feel a physical pleasure based high but will indeed begin to shut down the breathing patterns in the body sometimes resulting in death.

Another important consideration with use of Subutex & Suboxone is the complete "out-patient" nature of the medicine itself. As of this update (February 2003) Subutex & Suboxone are still relatively rare medications and finding physicians willing to dispense the medicine can be even more difficult. OBOT- an anagram for Office Based Opiate Treatment is a brand new Federal designation allowing physicians to treat addicts legally for the first time in nearly 90 years. OBOT provides a new option to help those afflicted with an addiction problem, but as history has shown us with addiction it is a physical and emotional problem, only so much help can be provided in a simple office-visit. It should also be noted that there tends to be a knee-jerk reaction whenever a new form of treatment arises with a particular problem in that it may provide the "easy cure".

With opiate addiction Subutex & Suboxone represent the first new medications to be introduced specifically for opiate addiction in nearly 30 years. The reality is these medications are a reasonably safer substitute to Methadone, but they provide no element beyond working with the opiate receptors in the brain. Unfortunately, the "street" level gossip surrounding Buprenorphine has not been incredibly encouraging in relation to more "hard-core" type Heroin and prescription opiate abusers. Buprenorphine in the " judge & jury" of street drug users seems to have a very light effect, typically leaving the user wanting to use more opiates on top of it. We shall see in the years to come what impact Bupernorphine will make upon the addiction community in the USA, and much of that is dependent on how many physicians choose to carry the special certification necessary to dispense this drug to known addicts.

Is a "live in" treatment program needed after a Subutex & Suboxone assisted withdrawal?
The answer is yes, but in many cases at "live in" treatment period of only 7 days is required. These medications only deal with that initial "first step" of getting the active opiate abuser withdrawn from daily use. Some will choose to stay on the second medication for maintenance medication.

In either scenario these drugs do not treat the reason why that person began to abuse opiates in the first place. Furthermore, there are studies that indicate that Nalaxone (an co-ingredient in Suboxone) can actually produce a reverse tolerance to strong opiates like heroin which can often end up with the user overdosing if they were to relapse and use street Heroin.

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