Suboxone: A Safe and Effective Medication for Opioid Recovery

Stopping opioids (like oxycodone or fentanyl) without relief from medication can be an excruciating process. The chance of relapse and even overdosing is very real given today's highly lethal and dangerous supply. 

For these reasons, many people trying to quit illicit opioids look to medications like Suboxone to feel better and support their path to recovery. 

Decades of research has proven Suboxone is effective and it is recommended as a first-line, primary treatment. Unlike other addiction medications, Suboxone is accessible through telehealth providers who can prescribe online and send a prescription to a local pharmacy. Because Suboxone is safe and highly effective, it is also a more flexible option. You can take it at home, avoiding the need for frequent in-person clinic visits.

Instead of spending every day worried about where to find opioids and how to stop feeling sick, Suboxone offers a stable path to a healthy and fulfilling future.

Suboxone is a prescription medication that contains two ingredients:

• Buprenorphine is the main active ingredient. It is a partial opioid agonist that helps relieve cravings and withdrawal symptoms without producing the intense highs and lows of full agonist opioids like oxycodone, heroin, and fentanyl.
• Naloxone is an opioid antagonist that is not active when taken orally. Naloxone is meant to deter injection and misuse of Suboxone. 

While buprenorphine and naloxone make up Suboxone, there are other buprenorphine products available that do not contain naloxone. To learn more about these options ask your provider.

Suboxone (buprenorphine/naloxone): 

• Curbs cravings
• Relieves withdrawal 
• Reduces both the risk of using again and overdose
• Blocks the effects of strong opioids like fentanyl 
• Enables people to focus on healing and get back to living their life

Suboxone binds tight to certain brain receptors for a long period of time. This is important for two reasons: It means far fewer doses (just once per day) compared to other opioids and it works as a blocker to keep opioids like fentanyl from attaching to receptors. Both of these features enhance Suboxone’s safety.

How Does Suboxone Support Recovery?

Active addiction is incredibly stressful. Our patients have said maintaining an opioid addiction is like working a full-time, 24/7 job. This is where Suboxone comes into play: It is very long-acting, which means you can dose just once per day. 

Suddenly, people have their time and their life back. They are no longer working a full-time job to maintain their addiction. With reduced stress and cravings, and no need to scramble to ward off painful withdrawal symptoms, people get their lives back. 

On Suboxone, people maintain employment, build trusting and loving relationships, and get back to their hobbies and interests that were lost during addiction.