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1054484 tn?1255113567

Suboxone?

What is suboxone?  Ive seen a ton of posts about people who love it, and people who hate it... Im just wondering what it is.
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199177 tn?1490498534
Tylenol apap effects your liver over 4000 mg effects your liver it can cause a toxicity
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Avatar universal
I personally wouldn't take suboxone for hydrocodone. Keep in mind I don't mean any disrespect by this, but as I went from vicodin on to percocets and on and upwards.... There were times with every one of those drugs where I was in withdrawal. Sometimes I would take extra, sometimes my brother would steal them from me, etc etc. Anyways, this may be different for everyone but what I noticed for me was that even though every time it happened it felt like it was the worst withdrawal of my life, I also noticed every time I "graduated" to a stronger drug that the withdrawals were worse on that then with the previous drug. At least keeping that in mind for me, I wouldn't take suboxone for hydrocodone (the narcotic in vicondin / lortab / norco)

In all honesty, withdrawal from that will seem hellish, but if your taking that much then I would URGE you to switch to norco. The reason being is your kidneys, if you take that much lortab then you are extremely close to completely boxing your kidneys. I used to get pains in my kidneys where I could feel them shut down. It is one of the worst pains you can feel. For a "normal" person with normal height / weight 4 grams / 4000 mg of tylenol a day is the absolute highest a person should take before they risk toxicity from the tylenol and their kidneys start to shut down. I know I have taken well above that amount before and I'm sure at one point or another most people in this forum have. I do know that I was overdoing the vicodin 5/500, I couldn't take the vicodin ES since 7.5/750 means even more tylenol. Norcos on the other hand dont matter weather you are 5, 7.5, or 10 mg of hydrocodone, they only have 325 mg of tylenol.
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Avatar universal
How many is a "casual pain killer abuser"? Just curious as to what you think. You don't think that 10 Lortabs a day is worth Sub, do you?
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1052100 tn?1254083927
Question, if I understand you correctly I believe you stated that you should be on day three or four of w/d's before you begin taking sub?  The reason I bring that up is I believe I have also read that statememt from others as well.  I started taking sub the next day, I was on a very high dose of pain killers and soma, in the last week I had taken over 240 of each (probably in less than a week).  Of course this is not what I was prescribed, but I couldn't control the amount.  Go figure, I think most of us addicts take WAY MORE than we are prescribed, hence being an addict. Back to my point, is it true that you are supposed to wait until day 3 or 4 of w/d's?  If so, what is the reasoning behind that?  I see that you indicated that if taken before that time you could go into some REALLY bad w/d's.  It helped me right away and I felt better instantly. This is more for curiousity sake, since it is too late for me.

While sub has worked great for me I also am now aware that the w/d's from sub can be very uncomfortable and for some worse than the w/d's of pain meds.  I do agree that it is prescribed as a cure all and that the w/d's will be minimal, I think my doc does truly believe this, of course he has never been through any type of w/d himself, nor has he ever taken the sub or tried to come off of it.

Thanks!
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Avatar universal
As the eagle pointed out, its a very controversial subject. It depends on the person. I spent about 10 - 11 years on pain meds. I started with vicodin, then norcos (same thing, just less tylenol), then percocets, MS Contin. I decided to dump the MS Contin about 8 months ago. I was on 100 mg x 4 daily and the only suggestion my doc had was to go up to the 200 mg pills. Withdrawal was hell and my brother suggested I go to a methadone clinic. I cant stand having to take the methadone so about 3 months ago I started skipping days since my idea of tapering was much faster than the doc at the clinics idea. I finally got to the point where I was only taking my 160 mg dose 3 times a week. As of now, I am at day 8 with no methadone, I took a suboxone this morning, two days ago, and the day before that. The w/d symptoms were killing me. Suboxone is a compound of naloxone and buprenorphine (not sure on spelling) The naloxone is a very mild amount and is something ER doctors use in opiate overdoses. The buprenorphine is a lot harder to explain, it does seem to help with pain but is very nasty. The point is that this stuff can bring your w/d symptoms to be extremely minimal as long as you dont take them until you are at least 3 to 4 days into w/d's. Otherwise it kind of send your w/d symptoms into overdrive. On the same note, you can become just as addicted to suboxone. I don't plan on taking anymore suboxone after today since as of Friday I developed a very strong headache that wont go away, and from what I have read, Suboxone may be to blame. Its day 8 already so I know the worst is behind me. I would have stayed at the clinic and took Suboxone through them and done there program, but I was at 160 mg a day, they kept telling me since it wasn't high enough to make me comfortable for 24 hours that my dose needed to go up, I said no. In order to make the jump from methadone to suboxone they want you under 20 mg a day for a period of time. I know this is all done to avoid w/d symptoms, but again, I'm not that patient. My life has gotten screwed up enough being on these meds and I'm not waiting another year to year and a half to be done with this $h!+. Hope that at least gives you an idea of Suboxone.
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990521 tn?1311906308
To add to theeagle's comments - suboxone is an opiate drug that is prescribed to people who are trying to detox from another opiate such as heroin or painkillers.  The controversy with this drug is that many doctors market the drug as a cure all for opiate addiction and since it is a partial opiate agonist, many believe that it is easy to quit taking and has less withdrawal symptoms.  That was how the medication was marketed to me and I took it for nearly 4 years.  In the end, I could not quit taking it on my own and getting off of it was very difficult.  Over the years, many have taken the medication to avoid withdrawal symptoms from their drug of choice only to find later that the withdrawal from suboxone is much worse than if they had just gone through the withdrawal originally.  I think suboxone has it's place, but the casual pain killer abuser should think twice before starting a sub regiment.
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Avatar universal
As you have noticed, its a very controversial subject.  The drug itself is buprenorphine.......it is similar to methadone in that its used for opiate maintenance and detox.....it is also a narcotic in its own right.  
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