Outpatient Suboxone Treatment
November 4th, 2009 by admin
Suboxone is a drug approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2002 for the treatment of opioid addiction. It is very effective in decreasing or eliminating altogether the withdrawal symptoms associated with opioid addiction.
This drug is taken sublingually (dissolved under the tongue). Taken properly it can reduce opioid use, help people stay in drug rehab treatment, and depress the symptoms of opioid withdrawal.
Suboxone is frequently used in outpatient drug treatment programs now. It is very effective and helps greatly to allow the patient to have a more comfortable opiate detox and maintenance program. There are many of these programs in every state. There are a few things you should look for when choosing an outpatient program.
Make sure you get a visit with a physician who specializes in withdrawal. This should be mandatory, as it is necessary to speak to a doctor about your other health problems and medications you may be taking. This doctor will then decide on the appropriate dose for your case.
Some outpatient facilities like you to spend the first 24 – 72 hours on site, as this is the critical period of opiate withdrawal. This really is up to you. If you think, you will be able to go it alone, or with help at home while making daily visits to the outpatient facility speak to the doctor about trying this first.
Most outpatient programs want frequent visits during the period following this. Over the next 30 days programs will recommend you come in for medication management, group and individual therapy as much as 4 days a week to as few as one day a week. These programs usually decide on this on a case-by-case basis.
The next two to six month continues with physician visits for medication management, group, and individual therapy on a slowly decreasing basis.
Some programs recommend you stay active in their program for anywhere from a year to three years. Again, each patient is different and this decision is usually left up to the physician and patient.
All good outpatient programs should have and education portion to their program, one that teaches about addiction, prevention, causes etc. There also should be a relapse prevention portion to the program that teaches a patient the triggers that caused him to become addicted in the first place.
This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 4th, 2009 at 10:22 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.