• 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

Opioids do drugs with longer half lifes stack blood level each cocurring day?

en10se

Bluelighter
Joined
Dec 19, 2012
Messages
112
title says it all, really curious as if long half life substances, IE valium/kpin/suboxone/methadone/etc stack the amount of the drug, since some drugs last more then 24hours.

day 1 : 10mg of longactingdrug (50mg half life)

day 2 : 10mg of longactingdrug ( 50mg half life)

day 3 .....""

and so on. would by day 3+4+5, your blood levels be alot higher then day 1-3, and does that just mean detection or active effects?


EDIT:
Don't wanna make a new thread but does anyone know if I can sucessfuly dose klonopin and suboxone once a day, without having "comedown" affects, after steady doses?
.5MG KPIN / 4MG Sub once in the morning.
 
Last edited:
oh ok thanks, if the substance had long half life but 8 hour duration of action, will it still build up even if the duration isnt as long like kpins
 
I think so, but I'm no expert
Hopefully someone with a better understanding will shed some light on this
 
Yes. This is why drugs like methadone and suboxone have such long and drawn out withdrawals, because the drug remains in your system for a while even after you finish a taper because it has been building up for months or years. This depends on the length you were on the drug. The effects go away because tolerance developes while on the drug, so even though you no longer feel it, you still have an active level of the drug in your system.

So say you take 8mg bupreneorphine each day. It has a half life of 36 hours.

Day 1 - 8mg dose

Day 2 - 8mg dose (but 4-5mg is still in your blood serum) 12-13mg active total.

Day 3 - 8mg dose (but 6-7mg is still in your blood serum) 14-15mg active total.

Day 4 - 8mg dose (7-8mg still active in your blood) 15-16mg active total.

Etc etc. It slowly builds up more and more over time. This will vary person to person of course, depending on your rate of metabolism.
 
Exactly this ^

In fact, when someone is on daily methadone dosing/chronic methadone they are actually at around double the dose in their body of what they are dosing. If for instance, I dose 50 mg a day, after a few weeks I actually have a steady plasma level of about 100 mg, due to the half lives.

Pbuilder explains it pretty well

And yes, there is a difference between half life and duration of effects.
 
Yes. This is why drugs like methadone and suboxone have such long and drawn out withdrawals, because the drug remains in your system for a while even after you finish a taper because it has been building up for months or years. This depends on the length you were on the drug. The effects go away because tolerance developes while on the drug, so even though you no longer feel it, you still have an active level of the drug in your system.

So say you take 8mg bupreneorphine each day. It has a half life of 36 hours.

Day 1 - 8mg dose

Day 2 - 8mg dose (but 4-5mg is still in your blood serum) 12-13mg active total.

Day 3 - 8mg dose (but 6-7mg is still in your blood serum) 14-15mg active total.

Day 4 - 8mg dose (7-8mg still active in your blood) 15-16mg active total.

Etc etc. It slowly builds up more and more over time. This will vary person to person of course, depending on your rate of metabolism.

Now I'm not doubting that certain drug's half lives build up but I'm looking at your example. If it's correct, you're increasing what's in someone's system by about 1 mg. a day. Where does that stop? If that truly is correct, at some point you'd explode, right? Just kidding! But you get what I'm saying? There must be a point where what's dropping off equals roughly what's being added, so you're basically at an even number. Does that make any sense?
 
I think some of it gets stored in fat tissue so not all of it is present in your blood
 
Now I'm not doubting that certain drug's half lives build up but I'm looking at your example. If it's correct, you're increasing what's in someone's system by about 1 mg. a day. Where does that stop? If that truly is correct, at some point you'd explode, right? Just kidding! But you get what I'm saying? There must be a point where what's dropping off equals roughly what's being added, so you're basically at an even number. Does that make any sense?

24 hours/36 hour half life=.66 half life completed * .5 reduction in blood levels if full half life completed =.33 reduction in blood levels over 24 hours approximately.

It would level off at 3 mg max for 1 mg . 3 would become 2 mg in the blood after 24 hours and would be replenished by 1 mg dose not taking into account bioavailability variables.
 
Now I'm not doubting that certain drug's half lives build up but I'm looking at your example. If it's correct, you're increasing what's in someone's system by about 1 mg. a day. Where does that stop? If that truly is correct, at some point you'd explode, right? Just kidding! But you get what I'm saying? There must be a point where what's dropping off equals roughly what's being added, so you're basically at an even number. Does that make any sense?

Ya eventually you would hit a max plasma level where the half life removed enough prior to each dose that your blood serum level would plateau.

The numbers i used were a rough estimate.
 
I think it's around 7-8 days that the half life/dosing stabilizes. It gets to the point where there is only a fraction of the dose left. I know with methadone examples after a week the serum level balances right around double the actual dose.
 
Thanks ferinox and pbuilder for your explanations. Oddly enough, I think that makes sense.
 
Generally speaking, a drug reaches steady state concentration in the body after 5 half-lives. It goes up a little after that but it's basically plateaued
 
Don't wanna make a new thread but does anyone know if I can sucessfuly dose klonopin and suboxone once a day, without having "comedown" affects, after steady doses?
.5MG KPIN / 4MG Sub once in the morning.
 
yes they do, think about the basics, like THC.... If I got tested right now it would probably show like that I've got the Republic of Texas levels of the metabolites in my blood and moreso in my body fat, but I haven't even smoked any dank yet.

$0.02
 
Top