Author: Charles Frank
How long does Suboxone withdrawal last?
These symptoms can last for weeks to months but resolve with continued sobriety. Talk therapy can help you figure out why you began using drugs in the first place. You can learn to identify specific situations and feelings that have led you to use in the past. Identifying these triggers helps you recognize and eliminate the negative thought patterns that cause you to make poor decisions.
Together you can create a plan to stop opioids slowly, called a taper. Tapering means slowly lowering over time the amount of opioid medicine you take until you stop completely. You might consider working one-on-one with a psychologist or mental health counselor in private practice. You can meet with a mental health or addiction counselor at a local community clinic. Or you can explore group therapy programs, which are offered at many hospitals, clinics, and addiction treatment facilities.
Suboxone Withdrawal Symptoms
Attending a qualified medical detoxification program is highly recommended for those who may be experiencing Suboxone withdrawal. In such a program, healthcare providers can provide medical support to manage your withdrawal symptoms safely and comfortably. In such an environment the tapering of buprenorphine can be carefully managed to reduce the overall severity of withdrawal symptoms and minimize the risk of complications. Most detox programs will also be able to provide linkage with other critical parts of a well-rounded treatment program, including residential services, counseling, and aftercare.
In some cases, your doctor may prescribe other medications to help you with your withdrawal symptoms. Suboxone withdrawal can lead to a number of withdrawal symptoms including cold-like symptoms, anxiety, stomach issues, and muscle aches. Such symptoms usually peak within five days and largely resolve within a week. If you take Suboxone to treat opioid addiction, then your withdrawal symptoms should be less severe than what you have experienced in the past.
Suboxone withdrawal typically begins within two to four days after taking the last dose, peaks around days three to five, and resolves within seven days. However, the impact is weaker than that of methadone and other opioids. American Addiction Centers (AAC) is committed to delivering original, truthful, accurate, unbiased, and medically current information. We strive to create content that is clear, concise, and easy to understand. However, for a person addicted to Suboxone, the longer Suboxone half-life means withdrawal can take longer. The easiest way to lookup drug information, identify pills, check interactions and set up your own personal medication records.
- Work closely with a doctor, counselor, or physical therapist to develop new ways of coping with pain during and after withdrawal.
- Relapsing after your tolerance has decreased can lead to a dangerous or potentially fatal opioid overdose.
- Following withdrawal, the person may use the opioid reversal agent naltrexone to maintain sobriety.
- Get support and encouragement from a local community group or Narcotics Anonymous (NA) meeting.
- But there are risks linked to opioid use — including severe constipation, nausea, dependence, misuse, opioid use disorder and accidental overdose.
The right length for an opioid taper varies with each person and each medicine. Your healthcare professional works with you to create an opioid taper schedule that meets your medical needs while keeping risks to your health low. Your healthcare professional may prescribe opioids to help you get through a few days of severe pain after surgery or a serious injury.
Suboxone Detox: Symptoms, Withdrawal & Timeline
It is currently approved to treat healthy adults for a maximum of 14 days following opioid cessation. If you are still struggling with withdrawal despite the Suboxone taper, your doctor may recommend one or more support medications. Sometimes, however, psychological symptoms can linger for several weeks. The timeline of Suboxone withdrawal is also a bit different from withdrawal from other opioids. Suboxone is a long-acting opioid, which means withdrawal symptoms can take several days to appear. Other physical cold-like symptoms such as a runny or stuffy nose generally disappear after 10 days.
By Corinne O’Keefe OsbornCorinne Osborn is an award-winning health and wellness journalist with a background in substance abuse, sexual health, and psychology. If you have been acquiring your Suboxone illicitly or do not have a close relationship with your doctor, it can be tempting to try tapering down on your own. Unsuccessful attempts to quit are discouraging and psychologically distressing.
However, you may experience feelings of general discomfort and opioid craving for a few months. The onset of withdrawal symptoms with long-acting opioids is often delayed. Once your opioid taper starts and you’re taking a lower dose of opioids, you start to have a lower tolerance to opioids.
Can You Quit Suboxone Cold Turkey?
However, sometimes, neither methadone nor buprenorphine products can be used. In these cases, patients can use other non-controlled medications to overcome addiction. These medications include clonidine and lofexidine, which can ease withdrawal symptoms. Following withdrawal, the person may use the opioid reversal agent naltrexone to maintain sobriety. After Suboxone, a long-term treatment plan should focus on preventing future relapse.
Get support and encouragement from a local community group or Narcotics Anonymous (NA) meeting. Figuring out how to get your life back on track can feel overwhelming and emotionally exhausting. Symptoms of Suboxone withdrawal usually last for a week but may last up to 10 days.
With these two components, Suboxone can reduce cravings, prevent withdrawal symptoms, and reverse the effects of opioids. Quitting Suboxone “cold turkey” at home can have dangerous consequences, such as withdrawal complications. Supervised medical detox programs help to ensure the patient is as safe and comfortable as possible. Medical professionals can monitor the risk of any severe Suboxone withdrawal symptoms or complications, and treat them if needed. In 2002, the Food and Drug Administration approved Suboxone as a treatment to help people suffering from opioid addiction taper off the substance and become sober. Suboxone is a combination of buprenorphine, a partial opioid agonist, and naloxone, which blocks the uptake of large amounts of opioids in the brain.
This involves slowly reducing the dosage of Suboxone over several weeks or months until you are no longer taking the drug. Other medications, such as clonidine, may be given to ease withdrawal symptoms. You can avoid the symptoms of withdrawal from Suboxone by working with your doctor to taper down your dose.
Additionally, it’s possible to crush up the pill form to ingest it nasally or dissolve the sublingual film strips to inject the medication in an effort to get high. There is little evidence to show that rapid detox (withdrawal over three days) is better at minimizing withdrawal symptoms and it may even be dangerous. A relapse at this point can be both discouraging and dangerous because your tolerance will have dropped substantially. Relapsing after your tolerance has decreased can lead to a dangerous or potentially fatal opioid overdose. Suboxone causes most of the physical symptoms typical of opioid withdrawal.
If you have been using Suboxone to treat your addiction, you are already ahead of the game. Suboxone allows you to develop a long-term treatment strategy without being distracted by the discomfort of withdrawal. Suboxone is not recommended during pregnancy, but buprenorphine without naltrexone is. Depending on your situation, your doctor may recommend an accelerated taper or a switch to buprenorphine or methadone, which have been proven safe during pregnancy. After withdrawal, people are also forced to take a good look at the damage that their drug addiction has wrought. The greater score reduction among Suboxone users supports Suboxone’s effectiveness in curbing opioid cravings.