Suboxone Treatment

Medical Treatment Options for Opioid Addiction

Standard treatment options for opioid addiction usually include methadone, naltrexone, and suboxone. These medications can help you slowly reduce your dependence on opioid medication while in a sober state.

These medications can also help you experience fewer withdrawal symptoms and reduce opioid cravings. All of these benefits will give you the best chance of recovering.

Methadone: Methadone is an opioid medication that has been used for three decades to treat opioid addiction. It helps people feel better, both physically and psychologically, while they detox from opioid dependence.

Because it has been quite successful in helping people get sober, it has been credited with reducing thousands of opioid-related deaths. Methadone decreases cravings and withdrawal symptoms while also blocking the brain receptors that give a person that "high" from opioid medication and heroin.

Naltrexone: Naltrexone blocks opioid receptors in the brain to help a person recover from opioid addiction. Similar to methadone, naltrexone blocks that euphoric "high" feeling from opioids. It has its benefits and disadvantages, so your doctor will carefully evaluate you before deciding if you are a good candidate for naltrexone.

Pros:

• Does not cause physical dependence
• Does not allow for tolerance to build up

Cons:

• Does not reduce cravings or withdrawal symptoms
• Patient must be free of opioids for two weeks before starting treatment
• Patients have a greater risk of overdose if they relapse

Suboxone: Suboxone is usually administered as a combination therapy of two medications: buprenorphine and naloxone. It has been safely used for two decades to treat opioid addiction. Suboxone is often preferred over methadone or naltrexone for several reasons:

• Can be used while a patient is actively reducing their opioid intake
• Helps lessen uncomfortable withdrawals from opioids
• Reduces cravings to boost chances of recovery
• Does not cause a euphoric "high"
• Blocks opioid receptors in the brain for about 24 hours
• Has a lower rate of abuse than with other medications

How Suboxone Works

Suboxone treatment for opioid addiction: Buprenorphine is a "partial opioid agonist," or semi-synthetic opioid, that doesn't allow for the full high that comes with opioids. It does this by attaching to your brain's opioid & mu receptors to produce a partial opioid effect.

In other words, it helps you to feel some of the effects of its opioid action, but without the side effects of tolerance and dependence. When buprenorphine attaches to your brain's receptors it mimics an opioid molecule. This tells your brain that there is no need to crave opioids or that withdrawal is happening. 

With suboxone, you'll feel more comfortable during the detox and recovery process because your brain isn't detecting that withdrawal is taking place. This medication also minimizes cravings, which can reduce your chance of relapsing. 

Suboxone can also help with pain relief, because it attaches to the same receptors that are responsible for perceiving pain (opioid receptors). With suboxone in the brain's opioid receptors, pain is relieved without using opioids. People with chronic pain conditions can safely use suboxone as an analgesic without worrying about becoming addicted to it.

This medication is especially helpful for recovering opioid users who need a safe way to relieve physical pain without jeopardizing their ability to stay sober. Suboxone lasts for 24 hours and provides long-term pain relief, which can help decrease the need to supplement it with other pain medications.

Naloxone is the other ingredient in suboxone. It works very quickly and blocks the effects of opioids in the brain's opioid receptors. When taken with buprenorphine, naloxone can prevent some of the deadly side effects of opioids including:

• Slowed breathing
• Severe sleepiness
• Dangerously low blood pressure

Naloxone is an excellent addition to buprenorphine because these medicines work together to safely relieve chronic pain without the risk of deadly overdose, dangerous side effects, or developing tolerance and dependence.

Suboxone as a Long-Acting Recovery Tool

Another advantage to suboxone is that it lasts for a long time. This medication is only needed once every 24 hours, which allows a person to feel stable in regards to opioid cravings and withdrawal symptoms.

Because suboxone attaches to opioid receptors in the brain, if a person takes opioids they will not feel the same euphoric effects. Preventing that "high" can help a person break their behavioral and physical addiction to opioids.

Safety of Suboxone for Opioid Detox

Suboxone is safer than methadone because it does not cause severe side effects if taken in excess. It is a partial opioid, which means that it does not produce the same dangerous side effects as methadone (a full opioid). 

Basically, if a person overdoses on methadone, they will feel high and their respiratory system can slow down to a dangerous rate. In contrast, if someone overdoses on suboxone respiratory side effects are minimal. 

Adjunct Therapies for Opioid Addiction

Social support and psychotherapy (counseling) are often used in conjunction with medical therapies like suboxone. Addiction counseling can help you:

• Identify triggers for opioid use
• Gain insight about when cravings occur
• Learn new behaviors to help you overcome your addiction
• Plan for how to respond to triggers
• Develop healthy coping skills

Group therapy is often an important part of recovering from opioid addiction. Support groups led by a therapist can focus on specific issues that relate to opioid addiction and recovery.

Knowing that you are not going through it alone can offer the social support you need to be successful. Therapists often recommend that people in recovery also attend narcotics anonymous meetings for constant support and accountability. 

Suboxone for Pain Relief

Suboxone can be safely used with opioid painkillers to relieve pain. It accomplishes this by partially binding to the same pain receptors used by opioids. When taken together, there is a reduced need for opioid pain medication, which lowers your risk for developing a tolerance and dependence to it.  

Suboxone for Acute Pain

The advantages of suboxone are especially significant for those who are recovering from opioid addiction. Imagine if a trauma, injury, or surgery happens to a person in recovery who cannot take standard doses of opioids? Suffering with the full impact of the pain is unconscionable. Suboxone can help by greatly reducing the amount of opioid medication needed to manage pain.

Suboxone not only reduces overall opioid intake, but it also partially blocks its euphoric effects. This is extremely helpful for people in recovery because they can get the relief they need with a reduced risk of relapsing. 

Another benefit of using suboxone is that much smaller amounts of opioids are needed. This limits the number of pills in a person’s possession at one time, which lowers their risk of abuse or overdose.  

Suboxone for Chronic Pain

In the same way that suboxone can reduce the amount of opioid needed to manage acute pain, it can also help chronic pain sufferers. Suboxone quickly manages chronic pain in the beginning stages of medical treatment, and can also be safely used on a long-term basis in conjunction with other chronic pain solutions. 

One of the most noticeable benefits of using suboxone to help manage chronic pain is that it helps prevent new cases of tolerance, dependence, and deaths from overdose. Worldwide, we are experiencing an epidemic of opioid addictions and deaths. Suboxone is an effective alternative to taking opioid medications. 

At Pacific Pain and Wellness Group, we are keenly aware of the need to prescribe opioids in a careful and responsible manner. That is why we offer innovative pain solutions that do not involve opioids.

These treatments include ketamine infusions, epidural injections, radiofrequency ablation, spinal cord stimulation, and diagnostic and therapeutic nerve blocks.

Get in touch with us today at (310) 437-7399 to see how we can help you feel better and live with less pain.

Suboxone with Other Pain Management Solutions

If you are recovering from opioid dependence and need to have a surgical procedure, we can work with you to come up with a pre-surgical and post-surgical pain management plan that is safe and effective. We can help you recover from surgery without needing high doses of opioids.  

Our pain management specialists will work with you and your surgeon to provide recommendations that take your individual needs into account. Come in today for a pre-surgical pain management consultation so that you can go into surgery knowing that your pain will be managed in the safest way possible. 

Our Expert Medical Team is Here for You

Our medical team consists of board certified doctors who have years of experience treating patients with suboxone. We have extensive knowledge in the medical treatment of opioid addiction, detox, and long-term recovery.  

We also offer addiction counseling with licensed mental health professionals in multiple formats including individual, couple, family, and group therapy. Our substance use disorder specialists have treatment plans that cater to each person’s needs to provide the best chances at recovery without relapse.  

Suboxone treatment can also help manage acute or chronic pain. If you are in recovery and need a viable alternative to opioid painkillers, suboxone may be ideal. It has the unique ability to relieve pain without causing an euphoric high or inducing cravings.

Suboxone Treatment in Torrance – Pacific Pain & Wellness Group

If you are a recovering opioid user and plan to have surgery, let us help you develop a medication plan that will give you the pain relief you need while helping you stay clean and sober. We can also help you manage a chronic pain condition with suboxone or any number of our innovative, non-pharmaceutical solutions.

No matter your needs, we are here for you every step of the way. From your very first consultation with our caring and compassionate team to your last follow-up appointment, our goal is to help you feel better and live better. 

At Pacific Pain & Wellness Group, we care about you as much as you do. Our goal is to help you feel better so you can live better. Call us today in Torrance, Los Angeles at (310) 437-7399.