Suboxone’s Ceiling Effect
If you are looking to make it through opioid rehabilitation, you have probably considered medication assisted treatment. For many addicts the only way to make it through detoxification is with the help of a medication designed to balance out opioid withdrawal. Some people have luck with methadone, but there have been advances in medication assisted treatment and suboxone is one of the most promising medications available.
In addition to the extraordinary benefits it offers like a cessation of cravings and withdrawal for a 24-hour period, it is also doctor prescribed and can be taken in the comfort of your home. For many people, these selling points alone make them seek out suboxone and they have the right idea.
One of the most remarkable aspects of suboxone is its ceiling effect, which lowers the potential for misuse, dependency, and side effects.
If you are interested in medication assisted treatment using suboxone, you should give Us a call at 888-646-0865 (Who Answers?) . We can offer you information provided by experts and connect you with treatment professionals.
Who Can Use Suboxone
A patient must be cleared of any potential health conflicts before being prescribed Suboxone.
Before you know whether or not the ceiling effect is a selling point for you, you should know whether or not you are even a candidate for suboxone assisted treatment. According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, ideal candidates for opioid dependency treatment with suboxone:
- Have been objectively diagnosed with an opioid dependency
- Are willing to follow safety precautions for the treatment
- Have been cleared of any health conflicts with using suboxone
- Have reviewed other treatment options before agreeing to suboxone treatment
By reading this information and other information on this web site, you are learning more and more and this will be a foundation that you can build upon when reviewing all of your treatment options.
The Suboxone Basics
Before getting into how suboxone works and the ceiling effect, it is good to know some basic information.
Suboxone is made up of a buprenorphine and naloxone combination. The medication can be found in sublingual film form to be taken under the tongue or in pill form.
“Buprenorphine is in a class of medications called opioid partial agonist-antagonists and naloxone is in a class of medications called opioid antagonists … buprenorphine and naloxone work to prevent withdrawal symptoms when someone stops taking opioid drugs by producing similar effects to these drugs,” according to the US National Library of Medicine.
How Does It Work?
The buprenorphine in suoxone is a opioid partial agonist-antagonists and that’s a pretty difficult terms to break down. Think of suboxone as opioid light. It tricks your brain into thinking it has been given a full opioid like heroin or OxyContin.
Think of your brain as a series of mailboxes. The brain wants them filled and when the brain gets a full opioid, each letter box is jammed full of mail and the brain is happy. The brain wants that mail to be present all the time and when it isn’t, the brain gets very sad that no one is writing to it.
Buprenorphine is like a single letter that makes the mailbox feel full. The brain gets its desire for mail filled, but it doesn’t get the full euphoria of being completely full. This allows suboxone to lessen withdrawal pangs because your brain won’t be calling out for opioids. This also eliminates cravings.
The Ceiling Effect
A lot has been mentioned about the ceiling effect and that is because it is what differentiates suboxone from taking straight buprenorphine. The difference comes from naloxone, the opioid antagonist. It battles with opioids.
Think back to the mailbox analogy. When suboxone send the single letter to each of your brain’s mailboxes, those boxes won’t accept any more mail. In essence, the naloxone blocks the effects of further mail or opioid exposure. Taking more and more suboxone won’t get you high. Even better? Taking heroin or oxy won’t get you high as long as the suboxone is in your system either.
The ceiling effect is also beneficial in overdose situations. Opioids depress, or slow, breathing, which is why so many users die when their breathing slows to a stop. Because suboxone doesn’t cause as much depression, overdosing on it causes less difficulty breathing.
Suboxone is a wonder and it has many beneficial qualities, of which the ceiling effect is a single one. If you like the idea of managing your opioid addiction treatment with suboxone, call 888-646-0865 (Who Answers?) .
