Bupe Long term bupe use

[qft]

Hi,

Anyone have experience with WDing off long term bupe maintenace?

Ive been on bupe for around 6 years, prior to that I was on heroin for 2 years and ive finally decided to get off the subs.

currently on 1.6mg a day however over the past 6 years ive been all the way up on 21mg/day and back to 1mg and back up again to 21mg/day, been slowly cutting down to where I am now over the past 6 months.

Just looking for info from anyone else who has been on bupe this long and realistically how bad the WD is going to be, kinda scary reading threads of people who've been on way less than me for way shorter periods of time and who had a rough time on it.

I considered just jumping off at 1.6mg and cold turkeying it however I am not so sure now, my doctor has wrote me a taper for over the next 12 days to gradually reduce to 0. I'm a little confused though - is this going to prolong the WD? i.e if on the 12th day I get to 0mg / day , am I then going to spend another 2 weeks WDing ?

thanks!

 

[Oxycondone]

I personally agree with a taper but I would do it over a larger amount of time and jump off at .2um (although I heard you can't get that in America if that's where you are).

I have only had small doses of bupe though and I don't think I'm dependant on it yet (touch wood) so I can't really give you a great opinion, I'm just going off what I've heard and what I've noticed jumping off a oxycodone + hydromorphone habit.

 

[gomorrah]

You definitely need to prolong your taper by a substantial amount of time. There is no rush to get off immediately, so TAKE YOUR TIME. Its rough, but it will pay off. i got down to very small crumbs, then small crumbs every few days, then nothing. One time I went back to heroin just to get a short-acting agonist replacement, though I believe this might've been counter productive.

 

[amapola]

Hey OP I'd recommend reading through this
Suboxone/Buprenorphine Mega Thread and FAQ v13.0
and the 12 versions before it if you want. As well as this.
Tapering Plan Mega thread - community project

Buprenorphine is a powerful drug and due to its long half life even if you are only taking 1.5mg a day it builds up to more than that in your system.
(nsfw for size)

NSFW:

You are correct that spreading out the really low steps of the withdrawal may cause it to be draw out over several weeks, but the advantage of that longer drawn out process is less acute all at once pain that jumping off would entail. Getting back into a normal lifestyle and over PAWS will be more of an issue with the long term usage as well.
The Opioid Withdrawal Megathread and FAQ

 

[suessmayr]

I think it depends on what your situation is; I've been reducing from 28mg bupe over the past 6 months (and methadone before that) and am currently on 2mg. I just finished my exams and am super keen to get clean, so I stopped dosing yesteday and am just going to tough it. Ultimately you can either pay the price in small instalments over a longer period, or just jump off now and have it over more quickly; there's no way to simply avoid the pain or discomfort, it's merely a question of how you prefer to endure it.

S

 

[qft]

Thanks for your comments guys, just in the process of reading through the threads tho its most of it seems to involve being on bupe short term.

I think it depends on what your situation is; I've been reducing from 28mg bupe over the past 6 months (and methadone before that) and am currently on 2mg. I just finished my exams and am super keen to get clean, so I stopped dosing yesteday and am just going to tough it. Ultimately you can either pay the price in small instalments over a longer period, or just jump off now and have it over more quickly; there's no way to simply avoid the pain or discomfort, it's merely a question of how you prefer to endure it.

Quite honestly, I am sick of having to take subutex everyday and I'm ready to just get off it once and for all (like yourself). its been far too long.

I'm just realistically trying to find out exactly how long the WD's are going to last for if i CT it - I've got 2 weeks off work which I thought would be long enough but after reading threads on other forums, with people saying their bupe acute WD's lasted for anywhere upto a month i'm really not sure.