Powered by Blogger.

Blog Archive

Saturday, June 29, 2019

By Douglas Fox


The abuse of opiate drugs has been ongoing in the US for a very long time. Statistics show that people who are addicted or were addicted to this drug at some point add up to several millions. For this reason, it is important to come up with ways of preventing people from abusing these drugs. Addicts of the drug should also be assisted to withdraw from addiction. When in search of Suboxone Memphis should be given priority.

Many solutions have been invented over the years and one of them is a drug called suboxone. Since the drug was invented, the name suboxone became a blockbuster and it continues to hold the same status even today. This drug works by reducing the symptoms related to the use of opiates and related withdrawal symptoms. When taken according to prescription provided by a licensed doctor, it is meant to be helpful and effective.

Manufacturers of this drug make billions of money in revenue every year. In 2013 alone, they made over 1.55 billion USD. More units of this drug were sold compared to Adderall and Viagra. In the face of an overwhelming opioid abuse epidemic, suboxone is considered a safer alternative compared to methadone.

Suboxone is a drug that contains two different drugs within it, that is, naloxone and buprenorphine. Buprenorphine is a partial opioid agonist while naloxone is a pure opioid antagonist. Both naloxone and buprenorphine serve two different purposes towards making the use stop their addiction. Being a partial opioid agonist, buprenorphine delivers diminished opioid doses to the blood stream of the addict.

The doses that buprenorphine delivers are meant to be much lower compared to what one is used to having. The purpose of the dimished doses is to help one get weaned off their addiction while experiencing the least withdrawal symptoms. Buprenorphine works by activating opioid receptors in the brain, but only partially. This is different from what happen in opiate drugs where they activate opioid receptors fully. Therefore, buprenorphine brings about very low levels of effects that are related to drug use.

Opioid receptors in the brain get activated by agonists. On the contrary, the receptors are shut down by antagonists. Shutting down agonists and opioid receptors prevents the effects of agonists from reaching the nervous system. This is because the effects are reversed and blocked. Antagonists also blocks effects that were already in the system. This helps in stopping addiction. This is how naloxone works given that it is an antagonist.

The antagonistic effects of naloxone usually trigger withdrawal symptoms in the patient. Withdrawal symptoms vary a lot and they could include insomnia, nausea, diarrhea, muscle cramping, wild mood swings, irritability, agitation, and vomiting among others. The severity of these withdrawal symptoms vary depending on the level of addiction the patient had before. If one was heavily addicted, they may experience fatal symptoms like respiratory failure and seizures.

Naloxone is combined with buprenorphine before it is administered to make it safe. This is because administering it alone can be very risky. The work of buprenorphine in the mixture helps to ease withdrawal symptoms. Suboxone was designed to be effective and useful, but it is currently being abused by patients a lot. Patients are overdosing themselves, leading to a serious problem of addiction.




About the Author:



0 comments:

Post a Comment