Many patients taking buprenorphine live in fear of a dark world around the corner where they will have to taper off the medication. They see horror stories on YouTube posted by people who, for some reason, abruptly stopped the medication and kept a video log of their experiences. My own Read more…
A post on the Forum asked about the best remedies for opioid withdrawal. I will review the medications and other treatments for opioid withdrawal that I have heard discussed by physicians or by people on the internet. Hopefully readers will leave comments about medications or approaches that they have found Read more…
Originally Posted 10/27/2013 I usually have my wife/business partner review my posts and provide her opinion whether my arguments are sound. For the record, she tells me that this post is technical and boring. I disagree, but we aren’t planning to separate over the issue. A valid criticism, I think, Read more…
First posted 11/11/2012 In my last post, I wrote about the work-up of a patient who experiences symptoms similar to opioid withdrawal that start about an hour after each dose of Suboxone. We decided that the symptoms were signs of withdrawal—i.e. reduced activity of mu-opioid pathways—and that the symptoms were Read more…
I struggle with the length of my posts. I shoot for 1000 words—an amount of reading that most people can knock off in a typical trip to the bathroom— but I find it difficult to limit posts to that size. So as I have done in the past, I will Read more…
I received a question from a reader about withdrawal symptoms from stopping buprenorphine. My answer has relevance to opioid withdrawal in general, and to a common misconception about the duration of withdrawal symptoms. The message: Basically I quit Suboxone about 18 days ago. When I decided to quit I was taking about Read more…
I often receive e-mails asking for advice on tapering Suboxone, or asking how long Suboxone withdrawal should last. People who read my blog know my approach to stopping Suboxone; I see it as an exercise in futility even in the rare cases where the person is successful, because of a Read more…
I have talked about the book I am working on– I decided at some point to come out with two things. I receive so many questions about Suboxone– apparently many doctors don’t come up with suggestions for dealing with surgery, pain, etc. So I have produced an e-book that describes Read more…
I ended the ‘85% off’ sale of the recordings listed to the right of the blog; they are also listed at the web page ‘Sober After Suboxone,’ along with some other useful recordings about opiate dependence. I have received good feedback about the recordings, and I think that the ‘how Read more…
A new feature on SuboxForum.com is the ‘Q and A,’ where I select a question to answer in detail. I will post my answer here as well. I won’t post the original question, but it is embedded in my response so I think everyone will figure it out! There are Read more…
I spend some time on this post at the forum so I will share it here as well. First, a post from a person who uses the name ‘Suboxone7yrs’: I was addicted to vicodin for 10 years popping 50 pills a day of Vicodin ES or NORCO, I then decided Read more…
I received some feedback after writing about tapering Suboxone and I would like to share the information and suggest a new way to think about buprenorphine during the tapering process. Suboxone is a very potent drug, and stopping requires more information. First, it has already become clear to me that Read more…