There have been a considerable amount of responses to this thread but I'm still going to move it into the
Suboxone/Buprenorphine Megathread, basically because there hasn't been a lot of action there yet people are continuing to make threads that could/should be posts in that all-encompassing buprenorphine megathread.
Anyway, I agree with a lot of what BlueHues says, only I actually, like the OP, found the transition from 4mg to 3mg to be the first time my taper (which had begun at 8mg, which i quickly cut down to 4mg immediately and stayed on for a month) proved to be any sort of challenge for me.
BUT, if you give it 10 days, I can say from experience you will feel way better on the new, lowered dosage. And as you taper further down, you'll notice that you feel more of a 'spike' in terms of effect whenever you take your suboxone (as it was at first used as an analgesic in microgram dosages anyway). In a way it can be a bit confusing if you're really trying to get off the shit (because you get rewarded for lowering your dosage by achieving more agonist effects, but at the same time, if you have been clean for a while and aren't used to that euphoria it could be disturbing).
Also, just so you have a better understanding of what you are going through:
•Buprenorphine is a potent partial agonist. It is stronger than morphine, heroin, oxycodone, hydromorphone, oxymorphone, and even Fentanyl-yet because it is only a partial agonist, it can only stimulate someones opiate receptors up to a certain point/dose, and if one continues to take buprenorphine, there will be no increased opiate effects, just a build up of the drug in the users blood.
•Many Sub doctors claim that the ceiling dosage is 32mg-its not. the ceiling effect is probably around 4mg as thats the dose that most people have no problem tapering down to, but run into trouble when they try to dip below into the 3mg or 2mg range. The reasons buprenorphine is prescribed at doses above 4mg and all the way to 32mg, is because only at 8mg and up will Buprenorphine effectively block other opiates from attaching to receptors. There are also some people who just enjoy being on higher dosages because they don't have to worry about impending withdrawals if they end up missing a dose, and can often even go a few days without even feeling withdrawal at all.
Anyway, when you take the dose that fully stimulates your opiate receptors to bupes' maximum agonistic capabilities (at around 4mg), you have enough bupe built up from previous half lives that you can still administer the Suboxone once a day and feel stable (usually). However, when you take a dose thats below 4mg, you will likely begin to experience mild withdrawal symptoms as even at its peak, the buprenorphine isn't completely covering all your receptors anymore, and as the day goes on, the drug begins to disconnect itself from more and more receptors as more time goes by without any opiate use. After 24 hours, when you wake up and take the suboxone, you'll get definite relief from the deficiency that you're putting yourself through, but you wont achieve any sense of well being for the first few days. After about 3 days though, you will find that your newer dose feels stronger than the older (and higher) one. That's because your body is finally starting to eliminate the suboxone from your system at a rate that the buprenorphine cant keep up with any longer at such a dose. If you lower your dose down to a milligram or less, it really begins to feel like you're taking a full agonist (much like methadone IMO in terms of the euphoric effects, which are present but far from mind blowing), and it also begins to wear off increasingly quicker, which is why cutting your daily dose of suboxone in half and taking it in the morning and the evening is the best thing you can do to strategize against the apathy, fatigue, anxiety and restlessness that are common unpleasant side effects that begin to kick in as your morning dosage wears off.
