Seboxen instead of HYDROCODONE

[hydrofup]

Is Seboxen a good option to stop taking high doses (PRESCRIBED)
of hydrocodone 10/325 for 5 years. I have multiple significant herniations, degenerative disc
disease and more. Not using for recreation by any means but as a way to keep working and
functioning.
But am very concerned about high long term acetomenophene factor.
New pain doctor has me on a 25 mg fentanlye patch but it seems very weak, and am down to 2-3
hydro a dinstaed of 8 -9.
She wants ne on no hydro and then to switch to seboxen only.
I fear it will not help the pain management . Only the opiate issue.

[f1swede]

Hi! This is how i got put on suboxone. I went to my paindoc. with MS contin and Vicodin ES. He said this is just going to get worse as far as going up on painmeds. He stated Suboxone is the way to go and it will also help with your pain. Well let me tell you it does not help with the pain at all. It's great if you dont want to go thru whithdrawls right away but the longer you are on it the worse the whithdrawls are going to be. I been tapering off Suboxone now for almost 2 months.There is a great article on the addiction forum on the lower right hand bottom corner check that out very good info there.Like Sandee1818 said once you get on Suboxone and take narcotic pain meds. they will not work Suboxone also has a 37hour half life. If i were you i would taper off the Hydro slowly. I dont know to much about Fentanyl but read it's hard to kick and very nasty whithdrawls. I guess what i'm saying is the same thing happend to me. The pain doc. just did not think the narcotic painmeds. are doing anything for my pain. Im currently on Vicoprofen 7.5/200 and they are not strong enough anymore because of the Suboxone have upped my tolerance.Sorry for being long hope it works out for you. F1swede

[ratdog95]

I've been on methadone for 5 years and want to switch to seboxen. what kind of withdrawels will I go through if any when I switch. and is it a better transition for me. is methadone or seboxen better for drug addiction.

[sandee1818]

I HOPE YOUR AWARE YOU CAN NOT TAKE SUBEXONE AND NARCOTICS TOGETHER!!!!!!! The subexone will render the narcotic useless and the combo will make you very ill. Subexone is for dependence issues and not for pain mngt ask your dr and record her response in detailed notes so you will have proof to fall back on later.

[Jaybay]

Suboxone was approved by the FDA to help ease the symptoms of withdrawal.  There are no studies to my knowledge regarding its use as a long-term pain medication.  This situation happens all the time with medications - once approved, they get prescribed for anything a doctor feels appropriate, and sometimes with bad results.

Simply put, suboxone contains 2 active ingredients.  One is a powerful synthetic opiate, the other is a partial opiate blocker.  The reason suboxone helps withdrawal is because of the opiate ingredient.  The partial blocking mechanism keeps the patient from getting high.  Personally, I would not want to use this drug as an answer to chronic pain without some kind of study to back up using it in that way.  

I think your pain doc is trying to get you away from meds with potential for abuse (the hydrocodone) and on to long-acting meds that don't have as much attraction for addicts.  She is correct that you don't need to be taking so much tylenol, and the fentanyl patch is a decent option.  Since your are down to only 2 or 3 hydrocodone tablets a day, a different option to those would be another hydro preparation that uses ibuprofen (advil) instead of tylenol.  It's called vicoprofen.  I know it's been on the market for 10 years or more, but for some reason many doctors aren't even aware of its existence.

I don't know if I've helped or just muddied the waters, but you need to have a long discussion with your pain doc about both suboxone and how to deal with breakthrough pain when the patch (or the suboxone) doesn't work.