What is Suboxone?

Suboxone is a drug used to treat the individuals who are addicted to opioids / opiates. Being a combination of buprenorphine and naloxone, this reduces the withdrawal symptoms initially and simultaneously prevents misuse. When used as directed, the active ingredients relieves pain and other euphoric side effects that generally occur due to opioid drugs.

What do Burprenorphine & Naloxone actually do?

As a partial opioid agonist, buprenorphine’s job is to deliver very diminished opioid doses to a patient who is addicted to a stronger opioid. It provides a way for the client to be gradually weaned off their pre-existing addiction, while minimizing the opioid withdrawal symptoms that would come from the process.

Buprenorphine is a partial agonist that has low intrinsic activity. Since it triggers the opioid receptors in the brain only partially, the “highs”are quite low in comparison to those created by full agonists, and they are not as habit-forming. Such effects make buprenorphine a good first step in the treatment of heroin and opioid abuse.

The other drug in Suboxone is naloxone, a pure opioid antagonist.

An agonist excites an opioid receptor; an antagonist shuts it down, blocking agonists from reaching the receptor and even reversing the effect of opioid agonists already in the patient’s system by intercepting the signals that the receptors send to the nervous system.