Question by stevies.beloved: What is better? Subxone or Methadone?
I am having problems finding a good medication for my addiction to dilaudid. Can anyone out there help me?

Best answer:

Answer by Christy SD Nurse
Doctors vary in their reasoning as to what is best. In my experience as a nurse at a treatment facility is that Subxone is the way to go. However it needs to be taken correctly, twice a day, and with a tapering schedule over about 7-10 days..no cheating…it is hard to do this on your own. You are still going to be miserable and have intense cravings. Your body must be clear of opiates before beginning the treatment or you will get very sick.

Answer by qtpie20121
Have you tried a regular inpatient detox before? I am just asking because there is a lot of commitment that comes with medically assisted treatment like Suboxone and Methadone and if you can do it without either it would be best. However, abstinence based programs have a very low success rate so these options make it possible to prevent someone from ending up in a “revolving door” cycle of relapse to rehab to recovery to relapse. Make sense so far? OK… here is my opinion both as a nurse & a recovering opiate addict who in my ten years of addiction tried everything before finding what worked for me. Both are good medications and both are life savers in my book. What I looked at and what I believe others should too is what your needs are. If this is your first attempt at recovery you may not even know what your needs are yourself but try. Research has shown that Methadone works better for the “hard addicts” meaning those on Heroin, high doses of opiate pills (especially the pure ones like Oxycontin, Morphine, Roxicodone, etc), those who are injecting their drugs or possibly snorting them, and those who have had multiple attempts at recovery through other means. So if you are on Vicodin and use it by mouth just enough to run out of your script a week or two early you may be a candidate for Suboxone. Also, cost is an issue. insurance may cover either one but Suboxone is more expensive than Methadone and Methadone clinic fees can run as high as $ 120/week, For me the biggest decision was the fact that with methadone i would have to go in every day for the first 3 mo.’s and take my meds in front of a nurse. This verses getting a bottle of Suboxone filled by prescription in which i took in the privacy of my home. I chose the Methadone route. Surprised? So was I when I made the decision but this was how I knew how serious I was about recovery. See, as an addict I know that a “bottle” of anything means I don’t stop until that bottle is gone. As addicts we do everything to extreme. Work, play, food, sex, meds, it is all in excess. By allowing someone to monitor me for the first 3 months I increased my chances for recovery ten fold. At the end of those 3 months my mind was clear and I had my old self back so I was able to responsibly take home a dose of Methadone and not abuse it or sell it. After 3mo. I would get one take home dose and so on if i had followed all the rules. Another factor that was important to me was the one on one counseling I got with Methadone. Suboxone offers no counseling except for suggested (sometimes mandated) NA group meetings. However, anyone on Suboxone/Methadone knows the response they get at an NA meeting. They are treated as someone who is currently using which is awful for a new addict. Another issue is the permancy of the treatment. Methadone is a very effective medication for opiate addiction with the highest rate of success for any treatment as long as you are on it. There is the catch. It is up to 95% effective in preventing the use of illicit drugs while patients are taking it. however this rate falls to 5%-10% when you stop. I had to look at it like this…”I have diabetes. My diabetes is controlled with insulin but without it the diabetes will take over and cause me to die. The same holds true for my methadone” However, if you are without a doubt going to try treatment for a short while then you may want to go with Suboxone because it is reportedly much easier to physically withdrawal from I hope this helps with your decision. You can also visit my website to learn more at http://www.findingnormal.webs.com

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