How long after last heroin dose before taking first dose of subutex?

[shafibird]

I'm sure this has been discussed somewhere before but I'm afraid that I've been unable to find it using the search bar.
Basically my partner has been perscribed subutex to come off heroin with, his script starts tomorrow and he's been told to take his first tablet when he's withdrawing.
Sometimes he can feel withdrawals withing the first 12 hrs, sometimes longer. I asked the same question on google and got a few different recommended amounts of time to wait- varying from 12-48 hrs.
I have done several detoxes in the past but they've all been with methadone or cold turkey, so I have no experience of subutex.
Obviously the doctor did explain subutex to my partner but he's not the best listener; he tends to switch off which I find fucking annoying when its something this important but I don't want to start ranting about that!
So basically in a nutshell I was hoping someone could advise me how long he should wait after smoking his last dose of heroin should he start with his first dose of subutex?

Thanks!

 

[Larc]

Wait a solid 24 hours and you'll be alright.

 

[shafibird]

Thanks!

 

[Rio Fantastic]

Everyone says 24 hours, and that's pretty good advice, especially if it's his first time when he doesn't know how he'll respond to Subutex. Now I am in no way actually advising your partner, or anyone to do this, but I have never experienced precipitated withdrawals, ever, and I've gone from heroin to subutex loads of times, I usually wait 11-14 hours. For me, if it's been 12 hours, I know that I'll be fine taking the Subutex without risk of precipitated withdrawals, however I urge your partner to not get impatient and take it before 24 hours time, as the stories you can find of PW make it sound absolutely awful. I've also read quite a few accounts of people who took it earlier than 24 hours and despite seemingly being in full withdrawals, it all of a sudden got much worse than they thought possible & the worst part is there is fuck all you can do about it - heroin won't relieve it, more subutex won't do anything, all you can do is wait it out. The possibility of having an experience like that would make me very, very cautious - the time I realized that I only needed to wait 12 hours was when I didn't even know that precipitated withdrawals were a thing that could happen, so err on the side of caution here. Also, just a thought, if you can make it through 24 hours, you're basically already a fifth of the way through the withdrawals, and would only have to endure 2 more days before starting to feel a little better. Why not just go the full 5 days and fuck the subutex? Yeah, sure, subutex will stop you from using, at least for the duration of its half life, and it will get rid of the physical withdrawals, but it has a lot of drawbacks and in my experience isn't worth it overall.

 

[Phil.McKeer]

I don't like to judge it by # of hours. It varies wildly between different people, for some its 12 hours, some 24, some 36. I like to judge it by how I feel. I wait until I've been in FULL BLOWN WITHDRAWAL for at least a couple hours, then I dose the sub. When I say full blown withdrawal, I mean your eyes and nose are on like faucets, your legs are kicking like you're riding a bike, bone and joint pain, sneezing bouts of dozens in a row, etc.

You really have to be suffering before you dose your sub or you'll put yourself in precipitated w/d and it won't be pretty, as someone else mentioned nothing, not even a large dose of H, will help at that point.

It's better to suffer a little and then dose the sub with a guarantee of relief, than to dose it too early trying to avoid any pain and be stuck in unreversable withdrawal for hours.

Again, forget about what the clock says. Listen to your body.

Edit: Basically, wait until it feels like "torture", then wait some more, then a little longer, then you can dose the sub.