Between 2002 and 2007, the number of people age 12 and older who had a substance dependency or abuse hovered around 22 million, according to annual data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health. What many people who are suffering from opioid dependencies, in particular, may not know is that advances in treatment such as Suboxone are relatively safe and confidential options. Methadone, the popular treatment for opioid dependency since the 1960s, carries much cultural stigma, and for some people, the desire to avoid that stigma is greater than the desire to seek help. As an alternative to methadone, Suboxone does not have to be dispensed by specialized clinics, and it does not carry the same addictive risks as methadone. Suboxone can be administered by certified, trained physicians in-office during induction and at home thereafter with a prescription, allowing for a considerable amount of discretion. The prescription medication also frees up patients to maintain normal work and school schedules and travel at will.
Because buprenorphine, the partial opioid agonist in Suboxone, does not produce the full extent of effects of full agonists, Suboxone causes less physical dependence than other treatments such as methadone. According to the manufacturer of Suboxone, buprenorphine is effective at controlling opioid withdrawal symptoms and cravings for two to three days, depending on the dosage. Moreover, buprenorphine’s ability to bind to the mu receptor blocks other opioids from doing the same during treatment.
In a 2004 article from The New York Times, buprenorphine was called “the most important advance certainly in heroin and opiate treatment if not all addiction treatments in the last 30 years,” by Dr. Alan I. Leshner, a former director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse. At present, nearly 9,000 physicians and more than 1,800 treatment programs in the U.S. are authorized to provide buprenorphine treatment, according to the Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration. However, the maximum number of patients that each physician can treat with buprenorphine is limited by law. As efforts to increase awareness and encourage more physicians to receive training continue, the number of physicians and programs will hopefully increase and provide opioid-dependent people with an effective, confidential treatment option.
