Opioid addiction is a more prevalent problem than you’d think. Only a few years ago, about 2 million people reported abusing prescription pain medication for the first time within a 12 month period, meaning that in one year, there were more than 2 million people who began abusing pain killers.
The reason opioid addiction is so prevalent is because they’re so easy to become addicted to. Doctors all over the country have been over-prescribing patients with pain killers for years. In fact, about 80% of prescription painkillers are prescribed by 20% of prescribers. Consequentially, the patients then get addicted to the pain killers or turn to other, harder substances, like heroin.
Luckily, there are ways to help. If you or someone you know is suffering from an opioid addiction, you should consider a suboxone treatment. Here’s why.
What Are Suboxone Treatments?
Suboxone treatments use a combination of buprenorphine and naloxone. The former is an opioid medication, while the latter is a special narcotic drug that reverse the effects of other narcotic medicines. While other opioids are used to treat pain, family practice doctors use Suboxone treatments to specifically treat opioid dependency, allowing the patient to wean off of opioids.
Why Use a Suboxone Treatment?
Family practice physicians use Suboxone to suppress patients’ withdrawal symptoms and cravings, and because Suboxone doesn’t cause feelings of euphoria as opioids do, it can be successfully used to wean patients off of their opioid dependency. What’s more, Suboxone also blocks the effects of other problematic opioids for at least 24 hours.
Do Suboxone Treatments Work?
Success rates are measured by retention in treatment and one-year sobriety. Suboxone’s rate of success has been as high as 60% in some studies, making it very effective. And because it doesn’t cause euphoric feelings, patients are less likely to get addicted to it, nor are they likely to abuse it like they might with methadone.
If you or someone you know has become addicted to opioids, consider contacting a family practice doctor to learn more about Suboxone. If you have any questions, feel free to ask in the comments. More on this topic.