Opiate addiction treatments like suboxone have been shown to be effective by multiple studies, but continuing controversies surround its use. Unfortunately, this results in a lack of uniform usage of suboxone in the nation’s various treatment centers. Read on to find out how this affects your opiate dependency treatment.
What Is Suboxone?
Suboxone is a medicine that combines two different opiate substances, buprenorphine and naloxone. Carefully controlled and prescribed dosages of these ingredients are designed to replace the opiate substances in your body with a safer and more controlled alternative. Like methadone, this will help decrease the severity of your withdrawal symptoms. However the use of naloxone is what sets this particular medicine apart from other opiate maintenance medicines. That’s because it actually reverses the effect of any other opiate in your body, including the buprenorphine present in suboxone. As a result, your body will get the dosage of opiates that it needs to avoid withdrawal symptoms while avoiding the “fuzzy headed” or “high” feeling generated by pure buprenorphine.
How Effective Is It?
Suboxone has been shown to be an incredibly effective way to treat the physical symptoms of opiate detox and proper usage of suboxone can eliminate a person’s physical dependency on opiates in as quickly as 20-25 days. Like any replacement medicine, however, it cannot treat the mental and psychological reasons behind chemical dependency. These must be treated with a trained addiction psychologist who can help pin-point the underlying influences behind a person’s usage. However, the clear headed feeling created by suboxone undoubtedly makes this process much easier.
Why Is There A Controversy?
Suboxone has become controversial not because it is ineffective, but because, like many maintenance treatment medications, it is an addictive substance. And unfortunately many people have taken to buying and selling it for the illicit purpose of getting high. As a result, suboxone on the black market has opened up across the country which gives people access to an inexpensive and potent opiate. Unfortunately, it also exposes them to a wide range of dangers, including:
- Overdose risks
- Problems sleeping
- Migraines
- Severe anxiety
- Fatigue
- Difficulty speaking
Beyond its illicit uses, suboxone usage also suffers under the misconceptions that plague every drug maintenance treatment method. These misunderstandings center around the idea that users are constantly high and that they’ve simply traded one addiction for another. That is simply not true. Maintenance medicines such as suboxone are prescribed to be used at very specific times, such as when withdrawal symptoms become unbearable. Anybody serious about recovery will follow these guidelines carefully. The “always high” fallacy ignores the fact that maintenance medicine dosages are carefully monitored by a medical professional and slowly lowered until your dependency is overcome. Is there a chance some patients misuse their suboxone? Absolutely. But decrying the treatment method for the illicit behaviors of the few people who abuse it, does this medication a great injustice to the thousands of people it does help.
How Often Is It Prescribed?
In spite of the controversy that surrounds suboxone, it is still prescribed in high amounts. According to statistics from the DEA Office of Diversion Control, over 15,000 physicians gave out 2.5 million suboxone prescriptions in 2013 alone. Those large numbers of prescriptions are dwarfed in comparison to the estimated 30 million people in the US who have abused opiates in their lifetime. While many of these people were likely one-time users or casual users who never developed a full addiction, it is still a startling statistic to consider, especially when suboxone continues to be treated and viewed as a problem, rather than a solution.
Will Availability Increase?
The potential for increasing suboxone availability became greater in 2013, when the FDA approved two generic types of suboxone. The primary result of this approval has been a great decrease in the price of suboxone. Original suboxone costs as much as $11 per pill, while generic suboxone costs as low as $3. As a result, more insurance companies of more people are willing to pick up the high cost of maintenance medicines. Hopefully this will result in more people turning to suboxone to treat their opiate addiction.
How Do I Find A Rehab Center With Suboxone?
Finding a drug rehabilitation center that uses suboxone can take some research. Most rehabilitation centers will tell you if they offer suboxone if you ask them politely over the phone. However the easiest way to find a clinic with suboxone is to contact Rehabcenter.net who can access and navigate the Suboxone Directory for you. This simple online database collects the contact information of rehabilitation centers that use suboxone in all 50 states and multiple territories. Each listing includes the address of the center, contact information, and a brief description. A review section is available for each clinic, giving you the chance to make an educated decision based on the experience of other people recovering from opiate dependency.
The directory is extensive and some of the facilities may have stopped offering suboxone without the knowledge of the people searching the directory. Before making a decision on a rehab center, we can help narrow down your options and make sure that they still use suboxone for addiction treatment.
Clearly the controversy surrounding the use and abuse of suboxone has taken a toll on its acceptance as an opiate treatment method. If you or someone you know is suffering from opiate addiction, contact us. We can help you find the best treatment method for you.
from Misc http://ift.tt/1MIaFZc via Heroin Rehab Dallas
No comments:
Post a Comment