Disadvantages of Using Suboxone

Woodland Hills Suboxone treatments are getting more frequent as an answer to the current opioid epidemic ravaging the country. Despite Suboxone having a number of benefits, there are also serious disadvantages to using the drug.

Suboxone is a drug that is used to treat opioid addiction. It functions by restricting the production of endorphins when you take opioids so you don’t get high and therefore has no reward from ingesting them.

The drug is often prescribed by doctors that are inexperienced in treating addictions. Therefore, there are numerous issues that go unnoticed and undisclosed, especially when used for a long time.

The potential risks of using Suboxone include the following.

Addiction and Abuse

The paradox of using Suboxone to help treat opioid addiction is that a patient may replace one addiction with another. This is by far the most serious risk associated with opioid consumption.

Addiction is mostly a behavioral issue so the physical benefits of taking Suboxone may be impeded by behavioral factors. In fact, Suboxone addiction can be more serious than opioid addiction.

Many patients have stated that getting off Suboxone was more difficult than quitting heroin or OxyContin. If that is the case, it is better to try other alternatives.

Requires a Longer Detox

When you go in for detoxification of opioids and opiates, it usually takes between 5 and 7 days. At most, it can take 2 weeks.

However, Suboxone stays in the body for much longer. It may stay for 8 or 9 days in your body. A Suboxone detox will, therefore, take much longer. It can last for 4 weeks or even months.

If you get addicted to Suboxone, you are in a much worse situation than if you were only addicted to opioids.

Psychological Issues

As stated above, many patients have stated that it was much more difficult to quit Suboxone than it was to quit the opioids they were previously using. One of the reasons is that Suboxone is best used to limit the withdrawal symptoms when you stop using opioids.

Therefore, when you stop taking Suboxone, there is nothing to handle the withdrawal symptoms. Many patients have experienced intense bouts of depression after they stopped taking Suboxone. The repressed withdrawal symptoms seem to come on stronger than ever.

Therefore, waves of mental health issues can appear after quitting Suboxone. They can last for weeks or even months.

Better Used in Combination

Many doctors prescribe Suboxone and advise patients to consume the medicine as they would any other drug. However, that has been shown to be largely ineffective.

Suboxone works best when used in combination with other addiction treatment options such as counseling. When used alone, it will fail which is a significant drawback.

Using suboxone alone will only lead to dependence on another form of medication which defeats the purpose of addiction treatment. A method that cannot achieve results alone is not meant to last.

Suboxone only treats addiction issues superficially and does not get to the heart of the matter. That is why other treatment methods need to be used in conjunction with taking the medication.