In addiction treatment centers, prescription medications are often prescribed to patients who suffer withdrawal symptoms due to drug use. Subutex is a prescription medication proven to help reverse opioid-induced withdrawal syndromes to help someone get clean and stay clean.
How does Subutex Help Addiction?
Subutex is part of an opioid addiction treatment method known as MAT or mediation-assisted treatment across New Jersey. For Subutex to be effective, it must also be combined with a social and psychological treatment program for patients addicted to opioids like heroin, Fentanyl, and prescription opioids such as Vicodin, Percocet, morphine, oxycodone, or codeine.
People who are addicted to opioids are diagnosed as having an opioid use disorder. Some people are not addicted to opioids but are only physically dependent on them, requiring them for medical conditions. Both types of opioid conditions, whether opioid use disorder or opioid dependence, cause withdrawal symptoms that Subutex treats.
What Are Opioid Withdrawal Symptoms?
When someone has used an opioid regularly for as few as two months, they will become physically dependent on the opioid. What this means is that their body will rely on opioids to function. Someone dependent on opioids will get violently sick if they do not always keep a steady stream of an opioid in their system.
In as little as 4 to 6 hours after the person last used an opioid, withdrawal symptoms begin, and the person’s body enters detoxification. The detox symptoms that occur from heroin, prescription painkillers, Fentanyl, and other opioids will cause the following:
- Nausea, vomiting, diarrhea
- Sweating, fever, and cold chills
- Restlessness and inability to relax
- Body aches and muscle spasms
- Anxiety and depression
- Insomnia
- Intense cravings for opioids
- Increased risk of accidental overdose and death
Is Subutex a Narcotic Drug?
Yes, Subutex is a prescription medication that treats opioid addiction and opioid dependency. Subutex contains the active ingredient buprenorphine hydrochloride. It acts on the same brain receptors that opioid drugs and medications.
It is a substitute for opioids, but it is not as potent. Full agonist opioids include heroin, morphine, oxycodone, Fentanyl, and codeine. Partial agonist opioids, which is what Subutex is, are less addictive compared to full agonist opioids but still help withdrawal from opioids.
It is a prescription medication that can be obtained in an outpatient treatment center, inpatient, and through private doctors trained and licensed to prescribe Subutex by the Department of Justice.
What Does the Research Say About Subutex?
According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, buprenorphine (Subutex) is most beneficial when combined with other treatment methods for opioid addiction.
Buprenorphine is used in medication-assisted treatment (MAT) to treat Opioid Use Disorder. Medications such as buprenorphine, in combination with counseling and behavioral therapies, provide a whole-patient approach to treating opioid dependency. When taken as prescribed, buprenorphine is safe and effective. Physicians and mid-level practitioners with an X-license can offer buprenorphine for opioid dependency in various settings (SAMHSA)
Does Outpatient Treatment Provide MAT?
The treatment centers providing Subutex in an outpatient setting provide comprehensive addiction treatment services. The medication-assisted treatment includes outpatient rehab, offers individual counseling sessions, group counseling, cognitive behavioral therapy, motivational interviewing, holistic therapy, and relapse prevention.
Every patient in the outpatient MAT program also participates in ongoing aftercare for as long as their counselor and medical doctor suggest. The foundation for how to help someone end an addiction to opioids must begin with medications that reverse withdrawal symptoms.
Help For Opioid Use Disorders is Here
Without medications, anyone addicted to or dependent on opioids will relapse or find a way to self-medicate their symptoms. The reason that opioid addicts stay on drugs for so long is because of the withdrawal symptoms.
People physically dependent on opioids also suffer from having to keep medications in their bloodstream daily. The answer to this has never been more straightforward. Call now to be seen and medicated within 24 hours or less.
Medically Reviewed: November 1, 2022
All of the information on this page has been reviewed and verified by a certified addiction professional.