Can a person get high from Suboxone or buprenorphine, the active part of that medication? I suspect most pharmacists, police officers, and legislators would answer ‘yes!’, but the answer is more complicated. The people who serve patients who take Suboxone should learn how the medication works, when it is dangerous, Read more…
In the first part of this series I described my experiences working in methadone-assisted treatment, including aspects of that industry that, in my opinion, warrant serious consideration. In the second part I described steps that potential patients can take that might help them avoid spending their entire lives attached to Read more…
I described how seeking methadone-assisted treatment for OUD can lead to a lifetime dependency. Informed patients can take steps to reduce that risk of life-defeating attachment. Clinics could do the same, although doing so may harm the business model of some companies. People entering treatment, follow this advice so you Read more…
It warms my heart when friends or strangers or people in-between email that they enjoyed reading, and wish me peace. THAT has been the best part of writing over the last 6 weeks. If you go back to the start of this blog in 2008 or so, you will likely Read more…
I’ve been writing longer and longer posts on SuboxForum so maybe I need to write more here. This blog archives twelve years of frustration over the ignorance toward buprenorphine, at least until I ran out of steam a year ago. I grew used doctors refusing to treat people addicted to heroin Read more…
A couple comments for regular readers… first, watch for an upcoming change to a new name. For years I’ve debated whether to adopt a name centered on ‘buprenorphine’, rather than the more-recognizable ‘Suboxone’. I believe that time has come. Second, I’m going to ‘reset’ with some introductory comments about the Read more…
A blurb in the buprenorphine newsfeed (see the bupe news link in the header of this page), has the headline ‘Suboxone challenged by Clearbrook President’. I followed the link, and after reading the ‘article’ I wanted to comment to that president but the person’s name wasn’t included, let alone an Read more…
Last week, HHS Secretary Sylvia Burwell raised the buprenorphine cap above the current limit of 100 patients per doctor. This move, should it actually occur, will potentially save tens of thousands of young lives per year, given that over 30,000 people die from narcotic overdose each year. But instead of Read more…
First Posted 12/20/2013In the middle of an already-hectic schedule, my office received a call from a pharmacist at Roundy’s Pharmacy, Sheboygan WI saying that he couldn’t fill a script for oxycodone without the patient’s ICD-9 number. The ICD-9 is soon to be replaced by ICD-10, a system that applies numbers Read more…
First Posted 11/26/2013 As I read about the moratorium on buprenorphine treatment programs in Bangor, Maine, I thought about the scene from the movie Titanic where the people who found safety in lifeboats struggled to keep those in the water from climbing aboard. The Bangor city council recently voted to impose Read more…
Originally Posted 3/23/2013 I generally write positive articles about the use of buprenorphine for treating opioid dependence, and my articles have been reflective of my attitude toward the medication. The field of psychiatry encompasses more conditions than it does effective treatments for those conditions, and my initial experiences treating people Read more…
I received the following email last week. I considered trimming it down, but the story is well-written and describes a history that is similar to that of many of my patients. As usual, I will write a follow-up post in a week or so. Dear Dr. J, I have read Read more…