quitting suboxone

I have been on a full 8mg tablet of suboxone for over a year. I recently have been trying to cut down. It was easy dropping to a 1/3rd of a tabled then half. I have been down to a 1/4 pill a day for over 2 months. However, I cant seem to get any lower. I get horrible withdrawls. Any suggestions is greatly appreciated.

[GA Guy]

You're at 2mg a day. You need to get your doctor to prescribe you the 2mg pills. They're just a smaller version of the ones you're taking. From there, you can take a pill cutter and cut it in half, and then cut the half into halves. Just like you have with the 8mg pill. Each quarter will be .5mg. From 2mg, cut down to 1.5mg a day. When you're stable at that dose go down some more. this should help you taper lower.

[salsinator]

Hi Azeman,

Suboxone is a tough cookie to kick.  I was on it for nearly 4 years and dropped down to 2mg, but also could not kick it and I ended up going through a medically assisted detox.  It was an 8 day program and it really made the detox much easier than tapering.  People who taper on Suboxone usually get down as low as 0.25 - 0.5mg before quitting.  This means that you would literally be shaving crumbs off the 8 mg tab.  It's actualy pretty difficult.  Cut the 8mg tablet into 1/4 and then half that.  Try taking that dose just once per day for at least a week - it usually takes a few days for any kind of withdrawl (withdrawal) to kick in. Once you feel OK on the 1mg, try dosing every other day for a while, then try cutting that dose in half.  If you can get to this point, then once you quit, the withdrawal should be much easier.  Unfortunately, since suboxone is so strong, the withdrawal lasts much longer, so cutting back to as small a dose as possible is your best bet.  Best of luck and congratulations for wanting to quit - once you detox from suboxone - a truely clean life will begin.

[azeman]

I bought a pill cutter from walgreens. The suboxone don't chop up easy. They kinda fall apart. So what I do right now is I take a full pill and with my fingers split  it in half, then into quarters. I take The 1/4 pill and try and split that. I take a part of the 1/4 in the morning and then in the evening. Are the 2mg pills easier to cut? My doctor has no idea that I have cut down so much. I think I need to inform him on my next visit.

[GA Guy]

Azeman, you can also dissolve the Sub into distilled water and dose it with a childrens dosing syringe like you buy at Walgreens. Put an 8mg Sub tablet in 32ml of distilled water. You'd have a 4 to 1 ratio that way. 4ml would be 1mg of Sub. 1ml would be .25mg, etc. (I think my math is correct). The addiction doctor who used to be here was a big advocate of this. Just make sure you keep it refrigerated and use it just like the tablet form of Sub (keep it under your tongue...do not swallow).

[azeman]

I want the clean life so bad!!!