President Trump is expected to sign a bill to expand medication-assisted treatment but it remains unclear as to how soon that will take place. A new feature by NPR underscores a potentially dangerous conundrum for health care professionals and individuals seeking treatment for opioid use disorder: while buprenorphine (also known as Suboxone, Subutex and Zubsolv) has proven effective in blocking… Continue reading Lack Of Suboxone Access Leads Users In Need To The Black Market
Tag: Suboxone
An Open Letter to Addiction Treatment Providers
There’s something wrong with addiction patients feeling the need to ask for medical advice from their communities because they don’t trust their providers. Maybe you’re a psychiatrist. Maybe you’re a dosing nurse at a methadone clinic. Maybe you’re an inpatient counselor. Maybe you work in an emergency department, or you’re an OBGYN; maybe you don’t… Continue reading An Open Letter to Addiction Treatment Providers
New Dosage Strength Of Opioid Addiction Drug Approved By FDA
The FDA commissioner noted that the approval will expand access for patients and reduce drug development costs. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved a new dosage strength for a maintenance drug for the treatment of opioid addiction. Cassipa, which is a sublingual (applied under the tongue) film that combines the opioid treatment drug buprenorphine… Continue reading New Dosage Strength Of Opioid Addiction Drug Approved By FDA
A Practical and Comprehensive Guide to Finding a Suboxone Clinic
It took me 10 hours of phone calls, 20 voicemails, 3 chewed fingernails, and many packs of cigarettes before I found a Suboxone provider in my new town. This is the list I wish I had then. When I pulled a “geographic” a few years ago, leaving Portland for my home state of North Dakota,… Continue reading A Practical and Comprehensive Guide to Finding a Suboxone Clinic
Anatomy of a Relapse
When my father died, I hadn’t been to a meeting in over a year. I had no active knowledge of how to apply healthy coping mechanisms to a devastating situation so I just went back to what I knew: opioids and numbness. Two years ago I wrote a controversial feature for The Fix, “I Take… Continue reading Anatomy of a Relapse
What Sets Suboxone Apart From Other Medication-Assisted Treatments?
When taken as prescribed by an opiate addict, Suboxone doesn’t allow me to avoid or escape reality. This is one way it differs form other MATs. I’ve used the same pharmacy for over a decade. The tech filling my prescription this morning was the same one that had filled my Vicodin prescription for four years,… Continue reading What Sets Suboxone Apart From Other Medication-Assisted Treatments?
Suboxone: A Tool for Recovery
With medication-assisted treatment (MAT), people with opioid addictions are given the chance to rebuild their lives—often from the ashes and debris of drug-induced destruction—without having to fight cravings and withdrawal. Suboxone is a prescription medication that treats opioid addiction. It contains buprenorphine and naloxone, active ingredients that are used to curb cravings and block the… Continue reading Suboxone: A Tool for Recovery
More ERs Are Providing Withdrawal Meds As First Step To Recovery
Patients in need are receiving buprenorphine to address their withdrawal symptoms. Kicking an opioid habit comes with a host of physical withdrawal symptoms so severe that people often end up in the emergency room. There, they are usually treated for diarrhea or vomiting, but not the underlying issue. Now, however, more emergency rooms around the… Continue reading More ERs Are Providing Withdrawal Meds As First Step To Recovery
Man Sues Prison For Addiction Medication Access
The 30-year-old at the center of the suit started using painkillers as a teen and was prescribed Suboxone five years ago. Last week, the ACLU sued Maine’s prisons and one county jail over their continued refusal to give addiction medication to inmates. Zachary Smith, who is scheduled to go to prison in September, filed a… Continue reading Man Sues Prison For Addiction Medication Access
Dope Sick: Breaking Down Opioid Withdrawal
The strength it takes for a broken down, tormented person, feeling sick and hopeless every single day, to say, “No more” to their source of relief is something many people cannot even fathom. Dope sickness (from opioid withdrawal) or even just the fear of dope sickness can trigger a desperation and panic unlike any other.… Continue reading Dope Sick: Breaking Down Opioid Withdrawal