How Long Does Suboxone Stay in Your System?
Question by gatorman74: How long does Suboxone stay in your system?
Best answer:
Answer by Brussell
I personally take it, so here ya go:
Technically, the period of effectiveness is put somewhere at 24-32 hours, meaning that it can ease withdrawal symptoms and block the effect of other opiates/opioids for about that long. However, practically, I start to feel like I need to take another around 18-24 hours later. My back begins to hurt, etc. But I have been taking it for quite some time, so perhaps that is just because I have taken it for some time. From what I remember when I first began taking it, it lasted quite a while. But it doesn’t really matter, because if you take your medicine every day as the doctor tells you to, then you will not experience any withdrawal and the safeguards will remain in effect.
As far as how long does it stay in the blood stream, I have no idea. I would assume about as long as a normal synthetic opioid, which can be anywhere from 2 weeks to a month, and in some extreme cases even longer. However suboxone & naloxone are quite different drugs. Suboxone (buprenorphine) is very unique in that it binds to the mu-opioid receptors much longer than most other opiates/opioids. But that only means that it is effective on the nervous system longer, so I have no idea if it would cause it to last longer in the blood stream than other opiates/opioids.
It all really depends on the amount you have put in your system, and how fast your body metabolizes it. The half life of buprenorphine is 37 hours (roughly). So, for example, if you took a full month of suboxone at an 8mg dose, that would be roughly 32mg of suboxone in your system. If you went by half life alone (which isn’t very practical, that would end up being 576 hours, or 24 days. However, it would additionally last in the blood stream longer. Some people put it at around 17 days, others at longer, it just depends on usage, body fat, metabolism, etc. etc.
Suboxone is an amazing drug, and a godsend for those with opiate dependence problems. Formerly, methadone was about the only option, and most people ended off more addicted to a more detrimental drug due to methadone. However, Suboxone has many failsafes and unique designs. The chief chemical, buprenorphine, is actually a pain killer. It can kill pain, as some say, more effectively than even morphine can, yet has less side effects (little euphoria, less addictive properties, etc.). The drug attaches to the mu receptors in the brain, spine, and smooth muscle just like other opiates/opioids, however it lasts much longer on there (has a better “grip” on the receptors) and can even knock other opiate endorphins off the receptors to fill their place. You see, most opiates/opioids have a weak bond to the receptors compared to buprenorphine; they can be knocked off to allow other endorphines to bond with the receptors (even their own kind). The buprenorphine comes in, though, and knocks them off, and binds tightly to the receptors for a very long time.
This serves to kill the effects of euphoria caused by opiates already in the system, and also serves to prevent a person from feeling the effects of another opiate if they do end up using again. Therefore, if one takes the medication as they are supposed to, they will learn at some point it is no use to abuse opiates any longer. Suboxone also has a failsafe: naloxone, which is an opiate antagonist, meaning it works against opiates and opioids (even though it is made from opium itself). When absorbed sublingually (in the mouth) as it is supposed to be, naloxone hardly absorbs because the buprenorphine is water-soluble whereas naloxone is not. But, when someone tries to snort the drug or melt it down and shoot it up, they will undergo immediate withdrawal-like effects as the two drugs counteract each other.
Finally, suboxone has a third protection from abuse: a so-called “ceiling effect.” This means that no matter how much you take, at some point you cannot feel any more of the drug’s effect. This is similar to marijuana; no matter how much marijuana is smoked, a person cannot feel more of the effect than the strength of the marijuana allows. This is why one cannot overdose on marijuana. However, overdose of Suboxone IS possible, so don’t try. So, for example, even if you took like ten suboxone (DON’T TRY THIS), you couldn’t feel any more of its effects than if you took, say, 2-3.
I can vouch for this.
This is why Suboxone is said to have a 3 tier protection system. It was and still is revolutionary in the addiction management field. It single handedly raised the success rate of opiate rehabilitation programs over 10%.
Answer by Tip Harley
3 weeks