If you or someone close to you is struggling with an opioid addiction, you might be prescribed medication to help manage withdrawal. Suboxone is one medication that can be used to help people with opioid addiction wean themselves from more severe opioids like heroin. However, Suboxone is itself an addictive substance that requires regular tapering under medical supervision.
Using Suboxone to Taper Off Opioids
If you struggle with an opioid addiction, you might be prescribed Suboxone as part of your medication-assisted treatment. This is an FDA-approved use of Suboxone as a safe and measurable alternative to things like heroin.
Under these circumstances, you might rely on Suboxone as a part-time or full-time recourse. Its efficacy is greatly enhanced when individuals participate in inpatient or outpatient therapy, a requirement for those who participate in an FDA-approved MAT plan.
Tapering Off Suboxone
If you develop an addiction to Suboxone, then you’ll also need to learn how you can taper off Suboxone as part of an individual treatment program the same way you would get treatment for other opioids, prescription drugs, or even alcoholism.
For this, it is highly recommended that you receive professional treatment from a qualified center that oversees your tapering efforts with things like direct or substitute tapering.
Direct vs. Substitute: How to Taper Off Suboxone
Direct tapering is the most highly recommended option for anyone addicted to Suboxone or who is using Suboxone as part of medication-assisted treatment and needs to reduce how much they use until such time as they are no longer dependent on it.
With this option, your medical team will administer gradually reduced doses until such time as you are no longer reliant on any measurable amount of Suboxone. Direct tapering is the best option for individuals who are struggling with an addiction to Suboxone or who are trying to diminish the amount that they are reliant upon as part of medication-assisted treatment.
Substitute tapering is another way where a medical team will change a short-acting opioid out for a long-acting opioid and then slowly taper using the direct tapering method of that longer-acting opioid. The reason for this is that short-acting opioids can trigger severe withdrawal symptoms rather quickly, but long-acting opioids take much longer to leave the body and, as such, have slightly less severe risks for withdrawal.
For example:
If you are addicted to heroin, your withdrawal symptoms can start within 6 hours of your last dose, and these can include severe physical issues like insomnia, sweating, muscle aches, nausea, and vomiting. Heroin withdrawal symptoms will reach their peak severity after the first several days and start to taper off after two weeks. However, the cravings can last for several weeks or months after that.
Suboxone withdrawals don’t start for up to 48 hours after your last dose, and they include physical symptoms like diarrhea, abdominal cramps, sweating, trouble sleeping, muscle aches, nausea, and vomiting. The withdrawal symptoms can last up to 20 days, but with a slow, direct tapering method, this can be more easily managed.
In the example above, you can see that Suboxone can be an effective way to reduce the severity of withdrawal symptoms from things like heroin, and the direct taper method can reduce the withdrawal symptoms of Suboxone.
Substitute tapering is often used as part of medication-assisted treatment for those who are trying to wean themselves from another type of short-acting opioid.
Learning to Taper Off Suboxone with Sequoia Recovery
With Sequoia Recovery, we provide an individualized prescription drug detox program where clients can learn how to taper off Suboxone and learn to manage opioid recovery for the long haul. Our programs are offered at every level of care where individuals can reside at our facility full time for residential treatment as well as withdrawal management and slowly transition to slightly less demanding levels of care with things like intensive outpatient programs and traditional outpatient care.
Our staff works hard to ensure that anyone who is struggling with addiction to opioids who is given Suboxone as part of their regimen has follow-up help in place to taper off Suboxone effectively. With several types of individual and group therapy as well as holistic care, clients get access to regular supervision and coping mechanisms that can help manage withdrawal and ongoing recovery.
Overall, you can learn how to use Suboxone to wean yourself from a stronger opioid like heroin and to manage the withdrawal symptoms. If you are showing any type of addiction to Suboxone or using Suboxone to wean yourself from another medication, the direct taper method is best and should be done under Medical supervision.
Reach out to us today for help with your addiction.