Buspar for opiate withdrawal????

[codienne]

I found an old medication i havnt tried..Buspar....Would it help opiate wds at all in anyones opinion?

 

[dingophone]

I doubt it, seeing as it only has significant action at 5-HT1a. But I'm absolutely not an expert on this!

 

[codienne]

Yeah I doubt it too....Actually read more about it for myself and noo lol....ty anyways n sorry should have looked it up first kinda guessed it was no good but was hopin maybe someone had good luck with it or somethin haha

 

[herbavore]

I'm going to close this as you have now answered your own question.

 

[Swimmingdancer]

I decided to reopen this after conversing with some of the other SL mods because I know that Buspar actually can help, at least somewhat, with opiate withdrawals. It is an anti-anxiety drug and also has shown some efficacy in treating depression. Both anxiety and depression are a big part of opiate WD. But it seems to help with physical opiate WD symptoms as well. Here is a study that found it helped with withdrawal, but that it does seem to take a while to start helping noticeably (doctors usually recommend starting it before stopping the opioid for that reason):

They concluded:

Buspirone, a non opiate drug with no abuse potential, a safe side effect profile and no withdrawal symptoms at doses of 30 and 45 mg, was as effective as a methadone taper in alleviating the withdrawal symptoms of heroin addicts stabilized for 5 days with, and then withdrawn from, methadone.

From: Effects of Buspirone in Opiate Withdrawal

Since you were only asking about a specific drug I am going to move this to Other Drugs, but if you would like more help with support in quitting opiates I can move it back to Sober Living for you. Maybe someone in Other Drugs will have tried it for WD and can tell you whether it helped them and if so, how much it helped - I was prescribed it for WD but didn't actually end up taking it.

SL -> OD

 

[fairnymph]

Buspar is a pretty mild/weak drug, and like many gentler meds it was basically a sugar pill for me when I had it prescribed for anxiety. But since I didn't use it all, I, like the OP, had the idea of trying it while going through one of my heroin withdrawls. If there was any effect it was too mild for me to detect definitively. But it also had no negative effects, and I was able to keep it down when I was throwing up nearly everything else I tried orally. For people who are more sensitive than I, it's worth trying.

 

[medicine mouth]

I was prescribed Buspar a couple years ago for my anxiety . I only got a difficult to describe side effect that was very uncomfortable . I'm on clonazepam now as I was a few years back and it helps. Buspar didn't . Im out of clonazepam and ran myself short of my norcos by 2 weeks because of overindulgence . I keep telling myself not to do that but I find myself in this situation every month . I still have some Buspar that's 2 years old and was wondering about the same thing . I'm not sure if I should take it or not . Hell , it might make my withdrawal symptoms worse . I don't know .

 

[Seattle_Stranger]

Buspar could potentially help as it is an anti-anxiety med, try it. I don't think it could hurt you.

I've tried it in the past, honestly looking for a buzz, and man it was terrible. Instant brain zaps as if I had been rolling my sack off for a week...

 

[star15389]

This study http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2956114 suggests that 5-HT1a agonists increases secretion of beta-endorphin, and there are others that suggest it's helpful in withdrawal from all sorts of drugs. My experience is that it just makes you dizzy.

 

[AndersPZ]

I have never heard of it. I had a drug prescribed to me for withdrawal - Lofexidine I think it was. Something to do with Nor-Adrenaline. I still think that Valium is the best thing to have on hand for a detox attempt - lots of it.

 

[Kilfer]

This study http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2956114 suggests that 5-HT1a agonists increases secretion of beta-endorphin, and there are others that suggest it's helpful in withdrawal from all sorts of drugs.

And yet it is famously ineffective for benzo withdrawal. Long ago when it spanking new I was prescribed this for a year and dutifully took it as prescribed. Never noticed any effects but on the other hand it never interfered with any other drugs I was using, mostly to get high. For a long time I was left with the impression this drug was an overpriced placebo but now I do believe a minority of users benefit from it.