What is Suboxone and how does it work?
Suboxone, a combination medication containing buprenorphine and naloxone, is one of the main medications used to treat opioid addiction. Buprenorphine is an opioid substitute, and naloxone helps prevent addicted patients from tampering with the pills.
Using medications for opioid use disorder is known as MOUD. Use of MOUD has been shown to lower the risk of fatal overdoses by approximately 50%. It also reduces nonfatal overdoses, which are traumatic, medically dangerous, and which can cause lasting harms. With more than 100,000 overdoses from opioids each year in the United States, over the last several years, MOUD has become an urgently needed intervention that needs to be made more accessible to all patients.
Suboxone works by tightly binding to the same receptors in the brain as do other opiates such as heroin, morphine, and oxycodone. By doing so, it blunts intoxication with these other drugs, it prevents cravings, and it allows many people to transition back from a life of addiction to a life of normalcy and safety.
A key goal of many advocates is to make access to Suboxone much more widely available, so that people who are addicted to opiates can readily procure it. Good places to start are in emergency departments and in primary care doctors’ offices. More doctors need to become comfortable with prescribing this medication, which requires at least a modest understanding of how to treat addiction.
Common myths about using Suboxone to treat addiction
Unfortunately, among the public at large, and even within the addiction community, certain myths about Suboxone persist, and these myths add a further obstacle to treatment for people suffering from opiate addiction.
Myth #1: You aren’t really in recovery if you’re on Suboxone.
Myth #2: People frequently misuse Suboxone.
Myth #3: It’s as easy to overdose on Suboxone as it is to overdose with other opioids.
Myth #4: Suboxone isn’t treatment for addiction if you aren’t getting therapy along with it.
Myth #5: Suboxone should be taken for a long period of time.
