drinking alcohol while on suboxone for opiate treatment?

[yo0123yo]

I have been on suboxone 8/2 mg once a day for the past month and have not consumed any alcohol in the meantime. My question is, is it safe to drink alcohol casually/socially while on suboxone treatment? I have heard yes and no and that suboxone blocks part of the alcohol receptors? Can anyone verify or discredit these things? Thank you very much everybody

Anyone please?

 

[will430]

Well i used to drink alot in the army from 2008-2011. When i got out and started suboxone in late 2011. I rarely rarely touch a drop of alcohol. Unless im taking a capfull of vodka immediatley after putting a film under my tongue. I asked my doctor about having a casual drink and he said as long as you keep it under like say 3 beers in a 24 hour period. It will be fine. This is only after you have been on sub and are stable on it.

I have a friend that pounds beer while on sub maintaince. And he says it takes forever to get drunk. Almost like it block the booze from working. Honestly, it is not uncommon for people on sub to lose interest in booze completely. Maybe someone else has a opinion?

 

[Crashing]

No it doesn't block booze from working. It isn't safe to mix alcohol with opiates, but if you've been on that dosage for a while it's probably fine to start drinking slowly until you can assess your tolerance to alcohol. Either way, assuming you're trying to get clean you probably shouldn't be getting drunk while on sub treatment until you're back to healthy habits.

 

[laCster]

Dude I have been on suboxone(buprenorphine+naloxone) for 8-9+ months daily and I have drunk alcohol several times, too many times to count actually. Once I was stabilized at the right dose, subs didn't give me any significant sedation or high. The effects of alcohol felt absolutely the same, if not stronger. Go easy at first because bupre is an opiate nonetheless, you will probably get drunker off less with suboxone


Btw 8mg is way to high IMO. 1-2mg gave the.most mood lifting effects with least side effects while still keeping withdrawal out.of.the picture. At low doses, bupre acts as a prodrug for norbup more or.less and norbup is a full agonist meaning it will.produce effects similar to morphine . 1mg bupre won't get you high like a shot of morphine, but there is marked antidepressant effects, increased energy and/or sedation, and euphoric mood lift (not the same feeling of euphoria as oxy.or heroin). In addition, low doses produce less side effects like constipation, headaches, nausea, ect..

I suggest doing a quick taper. Tapering up or down with suboxone is fairly easy. I went from 16mg to 2mg in 2 weeks. And I felt no pain and actually felt 2mg was more effective than 16mg. IMO anything over 6-8mg doesn't increase effects or efficacy of preventing withdrawals. Rather anything over 6-8mg just increases the duration of effects, not the strength.like 16mg dose could keep a person out of withdrawal for 48-72 hrs, a 6mg dose would keep same person out of WD for 24-48hrs , and a 1mg dose keeps me out of withdrawal for 16-32 hrs depending on ROA.

Get down to 2mg sublingual or <snip - no need to suggest more harmful ROAs when no one was asking about them> and you will feel soo much better and happier, and you can thank me.then

 

[Swimmingdancer]

It doesn't block the effects of alcohol, but it can make alcohol less enjoyable for some people. Opioid antagonists have been shown to reduce the use of alcohol, as it does not have the same rewarding effects, and they also decrease cravings for alcohol. In fact drugs like naltrexone are used for alcohol addiction. Buprenorphine is a partial agonist/antagonist so it makes sense that, at least in certain doses for certain people, it makes drinking less enjoyable. It is still not wise to drink a lot while on bupe, especially if you are not tolerant to bupe, since as mentioned it may synergize with the alcohol.