Opioids Suboxone taper

[Thanksegon]

I started suboxone last year after being on hydromorphone for 2 years following transplant surgery. The suboxone handled the withdrawals and took away the haze, which was awesome.

I'm down to 0.5mg daily now. I just started that dose yesterday. Where do I go from here? Do I stop cold turkey at 0.5mg? Alternates days where I take a dose and then the next without?

My doctor will give me his spin. I'm curious what you folks would do next?

 

[G_Chem]

I would continue tapering. I’d go down to .375mg a day until stable, then .25mg, then .125mg before trying to jump. At .125mg I’d maybe do alternate days but honestly I feel alternate days just leaves the person in this up down state where it’s almost better to just jump at that point.

I feel .5mg is just starting to get into that territory where you feel some normalness peaking in. But there’s still room to taper.

-GC

 

[Isavela]

You can stop taking it cold turkey. Buprenorphine is relatively easy to quit and does not give you strong withdrawals, they only last little bit longer than other opioids.

 

[Eligiu]

I use the same taper every time and it's never failed me.

Mine starts higher but I'll put the full one in if anyone else who reads this is on a higher dose

2mg one week, skip last day dose
1.6mg one week
1.6mg one week, skip last day dose
1.2mg one week
1.2mg one week, skip last day dose
0.8mg one week
0.8mg one week, skip last day dose
0.4mg one week

At this stage you want take aways

0.2mg alternative day dosing
0.125 alternative day dosing

End.

By skipping the last day dose when you drop, it sort of 'tricks' your body into accepting a lower dose of the medication when you take the next one cause I've found I just go 'oh thank god' and I barely if ever notice a difference.

Alternate day dosing at the end I think allows the levels of the medication to be lower than if you took it every day because you'd be losing some of the half life.

The last 3/4 tapers I've done (still on sublocade now) have been basically pain free.

Bearing in mind the maximum length of time I was on suboxone those times was only 8 months because I'm a bit of an idiot and kept believing that half a year or so was long enough to treat my very serious psychological addiction to opiates stretching back to my teens by my early to mid twenties. So the longer you've been on it, the less successful this taper may be.

 

[seedee]

You can stop taking it cold turkey. Buprenorphine is relatively easy to quit and does not give you strong withdrawals, they only last little bit longer than other opioids.

take that with a grain of salt. i personally found subs to be just as hard a battle to get off of as other opiates i was a mess physically and mentally didn't sleep barely for weeks. and other shit persisted for about a month. its all relative you'll have a different experience than everyone else. my experience was jumping from .5 a day though so i'm sure you can soften the blow by going as low as possible

 

[Isavela]

take that with a grain of salt. i personally found subs to be just as hard a battle to get off of as other opiates i was a mess physically and mentally didn't sleep barely for weeks. and other shit persisted for about a month. its all relative you'll have a different experience than everyone else. my experience was jumping from .5 a day though so i'm sure you can soften the blow by going as low as possible

Yeah it is a battle, sure, but physically not as hard as some full agonist. Takes Time to become normal and function normally. I was using/on subs daily 13 years (8-24mg) and quitted a year ago very/too quickly 24mg to 0mg only in 3weeks, it was mentally hard but physically relatively easy because i expected it to be much worse and much more intense. But as i Said, after a year i'm not fully myself but better everyday.

 

[Thanksegon]

Since I'm already at 0.5mg, my hope is that the drive to 0mg should be easy. 8

 

[Man67]

Since I'm already at 0.5mg, my hope is that the drive to 0mg should be easy. 8

Do you feel any positive effects from Suboxone? If yes stay on that dose and don't change anything. It's really a small dose and if it helps you with the pain, depression, going back to opiates, why take a risk? If you think that you will be fine and don't have any (of the above) symptoms, then tapper. As slow as possible. I heard people talking that the last part is the most difficult. You are the boss so figure out your own method of tapering. Good luck.

 

[reasoni]

This makes me wonder if anyone has dissolved the strips/pills and titration to macrodosing and then macrodosing to naltrexone?

 

[Man67]

Could you be more specific regarding dosing?

 

[G_Chem]

This makes me wonder if anyone has dissolved the strips/pills and titration to macrodosing and then macrodosing to naltrexone?

I tried but felt the added liquid changed the bioavailability for me. I’ve found better luck just cutting the strips smaller and smaller with a razor blade.

-GC

 

[Man67]

I tried but felt the added liquid changed the bioavailability for me. I’ve found better luck just cutting the strips smaller and smaller with a razor blade.

-GC

Guys sorry to interrupt but what is the point of microdosing? I tried several times to cut the strip into 0.2-0.5 doses but didn't feel anything?

 

[Opi_Kid_Rock]

This is the thread I’ve been looking for. Thanks all.

 

[Man67]

This is the thread I’ve been looking for. Thanks all.

I'm happy for you mate but still looking for answer to my question. What's the minimum dose that works while you can still feel some buzz? As I said l tried every possible combo from 0.2 to 16mg and still have no answer. At the moment I take 6mg in the am and remaining 2mg in the pm. Helps a bit with the depression and pain.

 

[reasoni]

From my experience won’t get any buzz taking Suboxone daily 4mg and higher

 

[Man67]

From my experience won’t get any buzz taking Suboxone daily 4mg and higher

Your suggestion? 2mg in the am. and another 2 pm.? My problem is that 6mg which I take immediately when I wake up really help me with depression.

 

[reasoni]

Your suggestion? 2mg in the am. and another 2 pm.? My problem is that 6mg which I take immediately when I wake up really help me with depression.

I’m not encouraging anybody to get a buzz but what I mean is if you take 4 mg or more every 24 hours most will not get a buzz even if they double their dose. Generally one has to take 4 mg every 48 hours or to take 1-2 mg every day for several days then go 36 hours then take 4-8mg for a buzz. But actually the buzz is much better taking 4 mg every 48 hours then 8 mg every 48 hours. What I would recommend is knowing your steady dose if you double your steady dose from 2mg to 4mg you will definitely get a buzz even more than from 4mg to 8mg and 1mg to 2mg is even better but from 8mg to 16mg you likely won’t get much if any buzz and from 16mg to 32mg you will from almost certain 99.9% get probably no buzz. Generally if you quadruple your steady dose you will get high ie 1mg to 4mg or 2mg to 8 mg or 0.5mg to 2mg. Again, I don’t recommend doing this as it generally is considered abusing Suboxone

 

[Man67]

I’m not encouraging anybody to get a buzz but what I mean is if you take 4 mg or more every 24 hours most will not get a buzz even if they double their dose. Generally one has to take 4 mg every 48 hours or to take 1-2 mg every day for several days then go 36 hours then take 4-8mg for a buzz. But actually the buzz is much better taking 4 mg every 48 hours then 8 mg every 48 hours. What I would recommend is knowing your steady dose if you double your steady dose from 2mg to 4mg you will definitely get a buzz even more than from 4mg to 8mg and 1mg to 2mg is even better but from 8mg to 16mg you likely won’t get much if any buzz and from 16mg to 32mg you will from almost certain 99.9% get probably no buzz. Generally if you quadruple your steady dose you will get high ie 1mg to 4mg or 2mg to 8 mg or 0.5mg to 2mg. Again, I don’t recommend doing this as it generally is considered abusing Suboxone

Thanks for the detailed instructions mate. I got it. But.... If I take only 4mg every 48 hours, its not enough to help me regarding my chronic depression and headache. Of course that I would like to feel a little buzz but I also got a serious things to worry about. I MUST take Subs every day. Which dose would be right to manage my simptoms and give me a little bit of pleasure? Your thoughts?

 

[G_Chem]

Guys sorry to interrupt but what is the point of microdosing? I tried several times to cut the strip into 0.2-0.5 doses but didn't feel anything?

If you take 6mg a day of course you won’t. You need to taper lower before you’ll feel the lower doses.

-GC

 

[reasoni]

Thanks for the detailed instructions mate. I got it. But.... If I take only 4mg every 48 hours, it’s not enough to help me regarding my chronic depression and headache. Of course that I would like to feel a little buzz but I also got a serious things to worry about. I MUST take Subs every day. Which dose would be right to manage my simptoms and give me a little bit of pleasure? Your

Your steady dose is 8mg per day; I don’t see any way of getting a buzz at that dose on a regular basis unless you take other drugs with it (ie stimulants) or you could try alternating your dose (ie you could take 2mg in morning and 6mg at night then take 6mg in morning (to get possible buzz) and 2 mg at night) another option that would probably work better for a buzz day is taking 4mg the first day and 12mg the buzz day it would still keep your steady dose at 8mg in the long run.

But the best way for a buzz I think is to lower your dose for multiple days then take extra the day you want a buzz (ie you could take 1-2 in morning and 1-2 night for multiple days then when you want a buzz take 4 or 6 mg that morning

While I think the best option is to do none of the above and keep doing what you are doing but to find a stable dose for a buzz unfortunately it’s not going to happen once you get tolerant to subs which is why it’s considered MAT make sure to not drink or eat anything 30 minutes before or after taking, that sometimes will help for better absorption which may help get a buzz, also some brands are better than others like zubzolv or brand suboxone is my preference then mylan (Alvogen brand causes me horrible headaches) some prefer to take all their dose at once (ie 8mg in morning or 8mg at night) Best of luck