What is Suboxone (Buprenorphine)?
Suboxone is a brand-name medication commonly prescribed by clinicians to treat opioid use disorder, and it’s a combination of two medications: buprenorphine and naloxone.
Buprenorphine helps relieve symptoms of opioid withdrawal, suppresses cravings, and reduces overdose risk. Naloxone prevents the medication from being injected or misused. The FDA has also approved generic versions of Suboxone. The person who takes buprenorphine feels normal, not high.
Buprenorphine is a partial opioid in the brain, which is different from methadone, oxycodone, heroin, and fentanyl. Because buprenorphine is a partial opioid, it reduces opioid cravings and withdrawal, but it does not result in the euphoric symptoms, or “high,” that people experience with full opioids.
And further, because buprenorphine is a partial opioid, it has a ceiling effect—this means that after a certain dose, there is no additional opioid effect, which ultimately decreases the risk for overdose.
Naloxone (commonly known as Narcan) is an opioid antagonist, which means it blocks opioids in the brain. The combination of buprenorphine with naloxone discourages misuse of the medication.
Different types of Buprenorphine Bell Eve prescribes
- Once a Month Injections (Sublocade)
- Sublingual Tablet or Film (Suboxone, Zubsolv, Buprenorphine with Naloxone, Buprenorphine, or Subutex)