It's possible b/c the dose you're taking is a lot lower than say someone who is on bupe maintenance, but I would be very cautious. I've never experienced precipitated w/d but from what I hear, it's definitely something you want to avoid. I would take off the patch and wait as long as you can before dosing methadone. Ideally 3 days. But if you're going through w/d or you're in too much pain, I would take half the dose prescribed to you...wait 3 hours...then redose if necessary
I would take off the patch as well, though I feel that waiting three days is a bt much. I would wait until you withdrawals begin as this would most likely be a sign that there is no longer any additional buprenorphine being transmitted. Take the 5mg of methadone and I imagine that you will be relieved of the withdrawals and not have to fear precipitated withdrawal. Luckily the Transdermal BA of Buprenorphine is low (15% approximately), and as the dosages are in the microgram range anyway, I don't think that a possible 10-15 micrograms which might still be absorbing, will be enough buprenorphine to send you into precipitated withdrawal. It certainly will not be enough to block other opioids, that's for sure.
IMO, your doctor should have switched you to a super low dose of subutex weeks before deciding to transfer you onto methadone. That way you could still get an equal dose of buprenorphine/day (though it would hit longer die to the fact that it would be absorbed all at once, though that's not a problem with bupe as it is long acting as hell anyway), and not have to worry about possible complications arising from continual hourly bupe absorption while taking methadone...
I feel that some doctors just don't know what they are doing when it comes to buprenorphine, and when it's prescribed in the form of BuTrans (which is a formula intended for pain,
not for the treatment of opiate addiction), they assume it's just another run of the mill opioid, just a little more potent and a little longer acting..
Addist,
We don't do pill ID's here. You should type the pills shape and score into any search engine and be able to find out if it's legitimate or not. If you can't find any information, well, it's likely not worth the risk. I've never heard of Mehr Darou but that doesn't mean shit as I am not a chronic pain patient. However, if it's some online pharmacy, I would NOT bother. Sure you may get real methadone, but you can also get ripped off completely, or sold some type of super potent designer opioid as methadone and overdose.. Really, not a smart idea if that's the case.