• 💊 OTHER DRUGS 💊 Welcome Guest
    Posting Rules Bluelight Rules
    Notable Threads 1 Notable Threads 2
    Dangerous Combos Addiction Support
    Emergency Services Benzo Guide v.1
    Addiction Stories Scary Case Studies
    Biology, Pharmacology & Drugs 101
  • Select Your Topic Then Scroll Down
    Alcohol Bupe Benzos
    Cocaine Heroin Opioids
    RCs Stimulants Misc
    Harm Reduction All Topics Gabapentinoids
    Tired of your habit? Struggling to cope?
    Want to regain control or get sober?
    Visit our Recovery Support Forums

Bupe Question regarding a high Suboxone dose

D

DoctorShop

Bluelighter
Joined
Nov 1, 2005
Messages
3,010
Location
couch
A few years ago I had a half gram a day heroin habit, more or less. You know how it is. Some days you'd have more, some less.

I decided to seek treatment and my doctor put me on Suboxone.

But the dose I was started on was 24mg. I stopped using it completely at 0.2mg.

But I have to admit I feel a little bit angry. I had a bit of a Bluelight hiatus while I was on Suboxone and I wish I hadn't, as now I am reading threads where people are saying there is no point going any higher then 8mg.

I know I could have tapered much quicker then I did, but why such a high dose? What is the doctors reasoning behind that?

Always educate yourselves guys. If I had known, I probably would be in a much different situation to what I am now. I'll never know now though.
 
The main reasoning behind prescribing high dosages is that while the ceiling effect is IME (and just is, IMO) closer to 4-8mg, such dosages, even taken daily, are not sufficient enough to block 100% the effects of full agonist opiates, especially when they are injected or taken at high dosages. When a person is on a blocking dosage, they will only try so many times to get high before giving up. I remember when I was taking the same dosage, I attempted to get high on heroin by not taking my suboxone for four days. I shot two bags, got a mild rush, and some mild effects, both which faded incredibly quickly. After that I just decided it wasn't worth the misery of waiting four days until I was in withdrawal just to try and get high off of my DOC, especially when the suboxone (once I resumed taking it), was more euphoric.

The truth though, is that I eventually just decided to lower my dose over a period of a month or so until I could get properly high off of full agonists. I think that for people who truly want to get clean, high dosages can be beneficial for a period of time as they can give a little assurance that even if someone trying to get clean suddenly does have a craving and relapses, they won't get high, and will likely give up rather quickly. There also isn't IME anything especially harmful about taking higher dosages (8mg +). Once you're dosing above the ceiling limit, those higher dosages (from what I know) will not agonize opiate receptors any further, so they won't increase tolerance. This is why it's easy to cut your dose in half when you're on 16mg, but not when you're on 2mg. Basically, high dosages just ensure a build up of buprenorphine in the system to keep your receptors plugged up, and to keep withdrawals at bay.
 
That makes more sense to me now. I can understand why the doctor did that now. Thanks for the in depth reply :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top