Suboxone and Subutex for Heroin Addiction – Proving Immensely Beneficial for Drug Addiction Treatment in Virginia
May 18, 2008
With the prevalence of various kinds of addiction, notably heroin addiction in Virginia, it is important to come up with various efficient treatment methods that can help combat the situation. Currently, Virginia is using two medications to treat opioid addiction.
These are Suboxone and Subutex. Both these FDA approved medicines contain the very popular buprenorphine hydrochloride as the active ingredient. While Subutex contains only buprenorphine hydrochloride, Suboxone also contains another ingredient known as naloxone which ensures that the person would not become dependent on the drug. The drug addiction treatment program in Virginia suggests that Subutex must be given in the preliminary phases of the treatment, while Suboxone must be given during the maintenance of the treatment.The other form of opioid addiction treatment in Virginia is using methadone. Methadone, though being used for addiction treatment nationwide since three decades, is not available in sufficient quantities to be used for the growing addiction problem. Only a few centers for drug rehab in Virginia use methadone. The rest rely on Subutex and Suboxone. These are also the first treatment drugs available out of a physician’s office for outpatient treatment. The reason why these medicines are allowed to be taken home during the outpatient treatment is that they are produced with several restrictions such as the addition of naloxone, which makes the chances of any abuse quite less. Due to this reason, there are less chances of overdosing on them and doctors can easily prescribe them for nonclinical setting usage.
However, the addiction treatment program in Virginia has made it necessary that only doctors with Drug Enforcement Agency id can begin a treatment with Subutex or Suboxone and then keep prescribing it in a continued format.
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