Buprenorphine Detox

Buprenorphine Detox Compare to Other Forms of Opioid Detox

 

Buprenorphine detox advocates have spelled out a number of reasons why their buprenorphine rehab treatment methodology is in many ways superior to other forms of opiate detox, such as cold turkey withdrawal, quitting rapidly under anesthesia, and methadone therapy. One of the positive therapeutic attributes of buprenorphine is the fact that it contains both agonist chemicals -- synthetic opioids which chemically bond to receptors and produce euphoria, slowed breathing, and numbness associated with opioid use -- and antagonist chemicals -- which block the uptake of other opioid chemicals.

 

In other words, patients detoxing on buprenorphine are in some sense “immune” to other opioids, such as heroin, morphine, codeine, and oxycodone. Moreover, whereas the intake of other opiates can lead to the proliferation of new opioid receptors in the brain and thus greater physical dependency, buprenorphine therapy builds in a natural chemical limit -- a “ceiling” that can’t be exceeded.

 

Also, given the advances in drug treatment options and the proliferation of buprenorphine education in the general addiction community, the therapy is getting cheaper and some insurance groups will cover or at least substantially defer the costs of the detox.

 

Buprenorphine doses can be precisely controlled, and patients can even tend to their own dosages and go about their daily lives. That said, advocates of the therapy encourage patients to undergo at the very least midterm and short-term counseling to work through the residue of opioid addiction. Others recommend that psychologically addicted patients enter long-term, intensive individual therapy to unearth provocative psychological issues.