Suboxone & Alcohol: Does It Help?

While most people associate the use of Suboxone to opiate addiction, there’s another reason it may be prescribed, for alcohol withdrawal. Made from a combination of buprenophrine and naloxone, Suboxone works to block withdrawal symptoms, allowing you the comfort and ability to go about your day without having the uncomfortable and sometimes dangerous withdrawal associated with alcohol addiction.

Alcohol Withdrawal

When an alcoholic stops drinking after an extended period of time, anywhere from weeks to years, he or she’s at risk for withdrawal. Alcohol withdrawal symptoms include anxiety, hand shaking, confusion, increased heart rate, fever, seizures, and delirium tremens, often referred to as the DTs, which has a death rate of between one and five percent.

Depending on your drinking patterns, withdrawal symptoms can set in within hours of your last drink, and some alcoholics are known to get up in the middle of the night to have a drink so they won’t be sick in the morning. If alcohol is controlling your life, call 888-646-0865 (Who Answers?) for immediate help. This one call could save your life.

Best Use Procedures

Suboxone can help ease alcohol withdrawal symptoms, but should only be taken by those who are serious about recovery.

If you opt to use Suboxone to manage your alcohol withdrawal symptoms, you must be serious about your recovery. Mixing Suboxone with other drugs, including alcohol, is dangerous, so safety precautions must be met.

You also need to be motivated for change. Suboxone has a long half life, and for some people effects may last up to 24 hours. That means if you’ve already taken a dose of Suboxone, you should abstain from drinking until the drug has left your system. If you’re not capable of doing that, you may want to reconsider your options.

Both alcohol and Suboxone are nervous system depressants, meaning they make your body run slower than normal, including your heart rate and breathing. And with two different depressants both working to slow the body down, there is a real risk of repertory depression when Suboxone and alcohol are combined.

Once the risk of withdrawal is gone, the wean down process for Suboxone should begin. If doses were kept low, tolerance and dependence will be limited.

In Coordination with MAT and Social Support

Suboxone is a narcotic and it is highly addictive. If you decide to take Suboxone to help manage your alcohol withdrawal symptoms, do so only under the guidance of a doctor in a medically assisted treatment (MAT) setting and in coordination with social support groups, such as AA or NA.

Suboxone should never be self administered and obtained from the streets or another illegal source. It’s an addictive narcotic, and for it to be effective in treating alcohol withdrawal symptoms, it must be done along side of addiction treatment to have any sort of success rate.

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Is Suboxone Right for You?

Suboxone is not right for every alcoholic, but for some, it may be the key to success. If you’ve gone through serious alcohol withdrawal before, have a history of chronic relapses, or have a seizure disorder, than Suboxone may offer you a solution. Call 888-646-0865 (Who Answers?) today to talk to an addiction specialist who can help determine if Suboxone treatment is what you need.