Suboxone for Methadone withdrawal and time off work

[KristenV]

Can anyone tell me how long I'll have to miss work while detoxing off methadone with suboxone. I know I have to wait until I'm 3 days into withdrawals before starting the suboxone. Also, does the doctor prescribe anything else for RLS and sleeplessness along with the suboxone?

[wait2long]

i DO understand what your saying, i KNOW naloxone/narcan is used to reverse the effects of an overdose...but the naloxone is NOT effective when taken sublingually...none is absorbed when taken sublingually like i copy and pasted above, which is why they made suboxone the way they did....if you shoot it up, then yes, the naloxone IS activated and absorbed into the system...
it is the buprenorphine that rips the opiates out of receptors and causes the precipitated withdrawals if your not in withdrawals  when you start suboxone...not the naloxone. if this isnt the case of naloxone not being absorbed sublingually, then how can it even be mixed in a tablet together with a narcotic like buprenorphione...?

[TysonRed]

Just for information purposes, Id been using methadone for over 3 years everyday. In the beginning I started with just one pill, but soon progressed to where I was on a constant dose of atleast 40mgs a day. Along came my cocaine addiction, it was very bad, I had gotten a settlement so I had alot of cash to blow at exactly the wrong point in my life. When the money ran out(over $50,000) I had to figure a way to get thru the cocaine withdrawls without going to a rehab. My use was all under the radar to my family, and alot of my friends, I was very depressed and thats when my methadone abuse basicly tripled to where I was having to take upwards of 100mgs a day, just to be able to deal with the coke w/d's. By the time I finally got benefits and got into an addiction specialist I was taking 140mgs of methadone, and as many other opiates as I could.  He helped me tremendously and tapered me down over 7months down to 40mgs. When I went to see the doctor that he worked for he recommended Suboxone, I really didnt hesitate cause Ive gone through bad methadone withdrawls and wasnt exactly confindent that I would be able to do it. So, I was started on 8mgs a day of suboxone, never went up, didnt need to I was able to deal with just the 8mgs. No some doctors(idiots) allow patients to switch over to suboxone too soon, before the proper tapering has been done. Its not smart to take someone whos taking 70mgs of meth, and start them on 24-32mgs of suboxone, Ive heard too many awful stories of people getting and staying on too high of a dose, and suboxone being used as a maintenance drug. It was designed to be used for easier detoxes for opiod addicts purely because its only a partial agonist, not as a maintenance drug like methadone. Now of course there must be certain circumstances where people need high doses of suboxone, but as stated above buprenorphine is very very powerful, much more than oxycodone, methadone or any opiate for that matter, so it needs to be properly used and tapered off. Now everyone is different, so there is no all purpose taper schedule that works for everyone, you need to see a Good sub doctor and get a full evaluation of all the particular issues at hand, and then come up with a realistic schedule of use and taper. You must be aware of the sad fact the many doctors do care about you, but they really care more about the money gained by someones addiction. That is why I love this site, we get so many different experiences and stories that we can all be better informed about the use of suboxone. Doctors are only required to attend a 8hr class in order to be a valid Sub doc, so they may not know all the extended issues the factor in the proper use of the drug. One thing we can all count on, is that this site is here to help us all with whatever struggles and obstacles life may throw at us, and in the end it is us that have to face facts and move on, in a more positive, productive life. I wish you all the best...and for anyone who agrees or disagrees with my opinion Id be happy to hear from all...Im here to learn, so if Im mistaken please let me know because its the only way that I and we can all grow with more knowledge.

[lovepat906]

Kristen- Depend on Wait2long's advice. She is amazing and she walked me and my son down this road! My son tapered down to 20 mgs of methadone after two years of use and a high dose of 95mgs. They tapered him about 2 mgs a week over a long time to get to 20mgs. He took a 10mg dose on a Friday morning and was in WDs by Monday am. They gave him 8mgs of subatex to start and over a few days took him up to16mgs and changed him over to subatex. His WDs /sleeplessness/ RLS were relieved within a day and he was back to work by Thursday.Once he was stablized at 16 he chose to begin an immediate slow taper. He started this process at the very end of March. It took about 4 months but by the end of July he was off of everything. He never missed work, had some low level WDs. He has had several challenges to his sobriety  during this time- a car accident and a pretty horrible wisdom teeth extraction. The ER gave him dilaudid after the accident and a day later he went back to his sub taper. The Dentist gave him lortab 10s for the dental pain- he took them as perscribed, tapered off over a few days and now only takes Ibuprophen. He gets the stitches out tomorrow! So. IF you are determined to do this YOU CAN! Make a plan and stick to it. I will send you his taper schedule if you like. Take care- take heart! lovepat

[worried878]

again..i want to emphasize the strength of suboxone/subutex...1 mg of sub = 15 mg of methadone....in comparison to other narctocis methadone is really not stronger...about equal to oxy...15 mg of methadone is about the same as 15 mg of oxy in strength..it is the long half life/which sub also has/ that makes it so hard to wd from..it can even store up in ur bones after long term use..another example when dealing with oxycontin verses oxycodone, there is a more difficult wd from oxycontin due to it is time released and longer half life...30 mg of methadone is equal in strength to 2 mg of suboxone...if someone is taking 32 mgs of sub they are strength wise taking over 500 mgs of methadone...so i am sure they would be sitting pretty good as far as no wds as they are using way more narcotics than they were at 30 mgs of methadone...and sadly doctors will start people at these extraordinary doses..educating urself to know better is the key as people get stuck on sub and i can see why...they r taking more narcotics than they were in the first place....30 mg of methadone would be taken care of with 2-4...6 mg max a day of sub...anymore than that could possibly be making the person high...and it is true...sub is possible to get a high from at a dose like 32 mg a day...unless u were a heavy heroin user etc...a hydro user at 80-100 mg a day can safely wd at 1-2 mg of sub and have no wds..i just worked with a 160 mg oxy user and 4 mg stopped his wd..and he did his 21 day taper and is drug free....32 mg of sub for a 30 mg methadone habit is just not realistic...for a 300+ oxy user or a heroin addict...perhaps but this is still on the very high side of the spectrum

[worried878]

no but when people are looking for help and needing to know info about work...they need to know their options....naloxone reverses narcotics...totally...someone can be unconscious from an overdose and not breathing and u shoot some narcan in their veins and they are wide awake...it totally reverses the effects of narcotics anf throws them instantly into wds as all the narcotics are gone from their receptor...u had mentioned naloxone/narcan has no effect on the drug and it very much so has an effect on the drug...subutex does not have narcan so u do not have this reversal of the narcotics...narcan is a code drug on every code cart in every hospital...for this purpose...if u do not see how containing narcan/naloxone would make these 2 drugs different then i would understand that as u have no medical background...my intention was not to show people how to abuse subutex...if someone wants to abuse drugs they can do it on either suboxone or subutex if they want to figure it out and believe me they will if they want to use bad enough...if there is a will there is a way...iwork closely with a pain mgt doctor who prescribes both ofthese daily and participate in studies concerning these 2 drugs...my intention was to set her mind at ease about missing work as there are ways around it..and anyone who knows me on her knows i would never try and teach someone how to abuse drugs..but i will state facts that i am sure of and that i haveseen with my own work background...it is a bit better than having opinions that have no clinical nor educational background and when u r trying to help people u need to know what u r talking about

[wait2long]

yes...a transition from methadone to suboxone really is a totally different ummm, "experience"(lack of a better word) than switching from short acting opiods,  avis is right...
i was only taking 20-30 mgs of methadone, but it took the full 32 mgs of suboxone to over ride the withdrawals from the methadone...methadone has a LLOOON NNGG half life also...i started at 8 mgs and worked my way up to 32 mgs, 2-4 mgs at a time in 1 day...it took about 6-7 hours to feel better and that was about 5 days after my last dose of methadone-20 mgs....it was a very difficult process, but it CAN be done...
i stayed at 32 mgs for almost 6 weeks then tapered quite rapidly without a problem down to 24 mgs, then another rapid taper down to 16 mgs..i am now down to 6 mgs...