Dr. Drew Pinsky slams Subutex and Suboxone on Howard Stern show

[anonymous]

Comedian Artie Lange used both for a while, but struggled with Subutex, even losing hair on parts of his body. When Subutex came up on the show while interviewing Dr. Drew (Celebrity Rehab), he slammed it as being "the new methadone," would not use it, and would question his colleagues that do, saying to them, "If you had an opiate addiction, would you be using this stuff? No, you'd be in therapy and doing it opioid free." NOT a glowing review.

Suboxone and Subutex are exactly the same thing. Both contain 8mg Buprenorphine. Don't get it confused when someone tells you Subutex is stronger because it lacks Naloxone. Naloxone has no significance when taken orally it just passes through the body basically like it didnt exist.

 

[anonymous]

Above idiot. You say that like it's a bad thing. Apparently, you aren't addicted to opiates or know or care about anyone who has been. Let me educate you, mouthpiece. This medication has successfully helped 100s of thousands wean off opiates safely, completely and legally. Take your self righteous know it all self back to bed and have a glass of milk. You and your kind haven't the slightest idea of the hell people go through trying to get off opiates, the repeated relapses, their families suffering and societies all over the world. Until you've walked a mile in my shoes, shut your trap and go clean up your own act. Get the log out if your own eye, before coming after the splinter in mine. No one, with half an ounce of sense gives a shit what you and yours are yammering about,because you aren't in our position. Buh bye.

 

[anonymous]

Above idiot. You say that like it's a bad thing. Apparently, you aren't addicted to opiates or know or care about anyone who has been. Let me educate you, mouthpiece. This medication has successfully helped 100s of thousands wean off opiates safely, completely and legally. Take your self righteous know it all self back to bed and have a glass of milk. You and your kind haven't the slightest idea of the hell people go through trying to get off opiates, the repeated relapses, their families suffering and societies all over the world. Until you've walked a mile in my shoes, shut your trap and go clean up your own act. Get the log out if your own eye, before coming after the splinter in mine. No one, with half an ounce of sense gives a shit what you and yours are yammering about,because you aren't in our position. Buh bye.

Opiates/opioids are bad for you.

Suboxone is and opioid.

Therefore, Suboxone is bad for you.

 

[anonymous]

Above post, you are clearly brain dead and mental. Go rainman go. Repeat yourself in the mirror, as you do here and get the most out of your need to act like a parrot. Leave the thinking and understanding compassion for opiate addiction to those of us with actual education, experience and knowledge of it.

 

[anonymous]

Above post, you are clearly brain dead and mental. Go rainman go. Repeat yourself in the mirror, as you do here and get the most out of your need to act like a parrot. Leave the thinking and understanding compassion for opiate addiction to those of us with actual education, experience and knowledge of it.

Oh the irony.

Interestingly, no education is required to understand the situation. Experience and knowledge help, as long as it's unbiased observation.

The most important thing you are missing is common sense.

It is obvious to anyone, with any common sense, that taking any opiate for years is not good for your health.

Leave your cave every now and then and you might learn something.

 

[anonymous]

No, the real irony is that you don't seem to have the experience, understanding or education to want to grasp the fact that we have an epidemic of opiate dependence, growing worse year after year. Yet you seem to think it's helpful to merely repeat that opiates aren't good for people. No shit Sherlock. At some point, you need education about the different types of opiates, partial and full agonists and how in combination with other meds, they can be used to safely and effectively wean someone of addiction to opiates that are full agonists. Lacking the education regarding the chemistry and physiology of addiction, you aren't fully grasping the seriousness of opiate withdrawal. The fact that you cannot abruptly stop taking opiates safely, once addicted, seems to be a huge piece of what's missing from your education, experience and understanding. You are contributing to the problem and misunderstanding of what it means to be addicted to opiates and how a person can safely wean off of them. Last but not least, it's clear you've never been addicted to opiates. I have and I am alive today, thanks to the safe effective medication called Suboxone and the team of Angels of counselors, nurses and docs who supported me through it. You can speak intelligently about issues you have no knowledge of, so go beat your drum elsewhere. You are helping no one, repeating the same mantra over and over.

 

[anonymous]

Correction to above post. You cannot speak intelligently about something you clearly have no knowledge of. Take your biased bs and shove it.

 

[anonymous]

I Agee with above post. You get these idiots who come on here just to tell us opiate addiction is bad. They haven't a clue nor do they care about the hell of opiate withdrawal, the recitivisim rate of repeat use, dye to the historical misunderstanding that a person should just be able to cold turkey off the drugs. To ignore this reality, makes a huge statement as to the ignorance if the moron posting. People die in opiate withdrawal and that has nothing to do with bias, it's fact. Suboxone chemically is safer, when taken as directed, in combination with counseling and support, than any other treatment I've exerienced. It saved me and many friends from the hell of life long opiate addiction. You really do people a disservice when you start yapping unintelligibly about a disease you have no knowledge, understanding or education of.

 

[anonymous]

No, the real irony is that you don't seem to have the experience, understanding or education to want to grasp the fact that we have an epidemic of opiate dependence, growing worse year after year. Yet you seem to think it's helpful to merely repeat that opiates aren't good for people. No shit Sherlock. At some point, you need education about the different types of opiates, partial and full agonists and how in combination with other meds, they can be used to safely and effectively wean someone of addiction to opiates that are full agonists. Lacking the education regarding the chemistry and physiology of addiction, you aren't fully grasping the seriousness of opiate withdrawal. The fact that you cannot abruptly stop taking opiates safely, once addicted, seems to be a huge piece of what's missing from your education, experience and understanding. You are contributing to the problem and misunderstanding of what it means to be addicted to opiates and how a person can safely wean off of them. Last but not least, it's clear you've never been addicted to opiates. I have and I am alive today, thanks to the safe effective medication called Suboxone and the team of Angels of counselors, nurses and docs who supported me through it. You can speak intelligently about issues you have no knowledge of, so go beat your drum elsewhere. You are helping no one, repeating the same mantra over and over.

Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts. If you don't mind clarifying a couple of points:

1) Regardless of which path is taken (Suboxone, methadone, detox, etc), is it your opinion that the end goal of any treatment provider should be to wean patients off ALL opiates, including paritial agonist opiates like Suboxone?

2) Have you "weaned off" Suboxone yet? If not, do you plan to?

 

[anonymous]

I Agee with above post. You get these idiots who come on here just to tell us opiate addiction is bad. They haven't a clue nor do they care about the hell of opiate withdrawal, the recitivisim rate of repeat use, dye to the historical misunderstanding that a person should just be able to cold turkey off the drugs. To ignore this reality, makes a huge statement as to the ignorance if the moron posting. People die in opiate withdrawal and that has nothing to do with bias, it's fact. Suboxone chemically is safer, when taken as directed, in combination with counseling and support, than any other treatment I've exerienced. It saved me and many friends from the hell of life long opiate addiction. You really do people a disservice when you start yapping unintelligibly about a disease you have no knowledge, understanding or education of.

I scanned this thread and can't find any posts that state or imply patients addicted to opiates should stop taking them "cold turkey."

You do a disservice when you assert the only way to safely and effectively manage opiate addiction is with buprenorphine.

Suboxone is not FDA approved for the treatment of withdrawal symptoms. All opiates, whether full or partial agonists, will make withdrawal symptoms go away: OxyContin, Hydrocodone, Heroin, Suboxone. If you're in withdrawal, and you take ANY opiate, partial or full agonist, your withdrawal symptoms will subside. Nothing magical about Suboxone. All opiates do this.

Suboxone is just a safer opiate to be physically dependent on due to a host of features that the other opiates don't have, like longer half life, ceiling effect, patial agonism, blocking other exogenous opiates from binding to the mu, naloxone to discourage injectioning, etc. It's designed well. But that doesn't mean you should stay on it forever.

It's a fact that Suboxone is a much safer opiate to be physically dependent on than other commonly abused opiates. That's not up for debate. What is up for debate is whether or not is healthy to take Suboxone every day as directed for many years or decades. I assert that it is not healthy physically or mentally to take any opiate, including Suboxone, for years on end with no exit strategy. While anyone with a modicum of common sense agrees with me, this assertion is backed by research:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3706486/

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3682495/

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17971165

This is just a sampling. Look and you will find more.

 

[anonymous]

No one remotely inferred that Suboxone is the only safe treatment for opiate dependence, you bag of wind. You're just on a rant and looking for someone , hell anyone you can discredit with regards to Suboxone. Keep on arguing with yourself. No one has made half the assertions you blather on about. Go look in a mirror and have a good old time bringing up issues and b.s. that only YOU keep posting about. That way, you will have some company. You must be one pathetic soul.

 

[anonymous]

No one remotely inferred that Suboxone is the only safe treatment for opiate dependence, you bag of wind. You're just on a rant and looking for someone , hell anyone you can discredit with regards to Suboxone. Keep on arguing with yourself. No one has made half the assertions you blather on about. Go look in a mirror and have a good old time bringing up issues and b.s. that only YOU keep posting about. That way, you will have some company. You must be one pathetic soul.

So, in summary, you agree.

Thank you for posting.

 

[anonymous]

I've took every pain medication there was to take, before I decided to "get clean" and take suboxone. I know most of you think it's a "miracle" drug and it is, to some extent. But if you really want to get down to it, all you are doing is replacing one drug for another. You're not actually getting clean, you're getting a prescription to keep you off the streets. At some point, you're going to have to pay the piper and mind I say, that suboxone withdrawal is a motherfucker. The doctors at the clinic do not tell you that part when you hand over your 250$. Smarten up people, and quit turning a blind eye to it. Fuck suboxone, if you want to get clean then do it for the right reasons and put the "replacements" down.

 

[Miketon 1968]

I have been on suboxin for 4 months and have been clean from all opiates.This drug has truly gave me a shot at a new life.I agree with the person above that stated it acts as a antidepressant,giving you a positive mood adjustment. Who is this dumb ass puting the drug down,another clown running his mouth with little information to back it up.Seems to be alot of that going on today unfortunately.Good luck to all of you trying to better your life .

 

[anonymous]

I have been on suboxin for 4 months and have been clean from all opiates.This drug has truly gave me a shot at a new life.I agree with the person above that stated it acts as a antidepressant,giving you a positive mood adjustment. Who is this dumb ass puting the drug down,another clown running his mouth with little information to back it up.Seems to be alot of that going on today unfortunately.Good luck to all of you trying to better your life .

You have not been free of opiates for 4 months.

Suboxone IS AN OPIATE.

The "positive mood adjustment" you are feeling is being caused by TAKING AN OPIATE EVERY DAY (Suboxone).

If your doctor told you Suboxone is not an opiate, YOUR DOCTOR IS LYING TO YOU. You can read the Package Insert, where it is clearly states that Suboxone is an opiate.

Taking an opiate is an unhealthy way to improve your mood. Opiates are not antidepressants. Not because they don't affect your mood, but becuase they have a serious side effect: ADDICTION and / or DEPENDENCE.

1) Go to therapy to find the root cause of your depression. It may or may not be a biological problem. It often is psychological, or a mix of both.

2) tell your doctor to detox you from Suboxone

3) maintain the daily practice of taking the psychological and/or biological action that addresses your depression (being mindful of your emotions, talking about them, eating right, excercising, taking an actual antidepressant if needed, etc).

 

[anonymous]

You have not been free of opiates for 4 months.

Suboxone IS AN OPIATE.

The "positive mood adjustment" you are feeling is being caused by TAKING AN OPIATE EVERY DAY (Suboxone).

If your doctor told you Suboxone is not an opiate, YOUR DOCTOR IS LYING TO YOU. You can read the Package Insert, where it is clearly states that Suboxone is an opiate.

Taking an opiate is an unhealthy way to improve your mood. Opiates are not antidepressants. Not because they don't affect your mood, but becuase they have a serious side effect: ADDICTION and / or DEPENDENCE.

1) Go to therapy to find the root cause of your depression. It may or may not be a biological problem. It often is psychological, or a mix of both.

2) tell your doctor to detox you from Suboxone

3) maintain the daily practice of taking the psychological and/or biological action that addresses your depression (being mindful of your emotions, talking about them, eating right, excercising, taking an actual antidepressant if needed, etc).

Too bad the world is not perfect. Talk therapy alone fails 90% of the time. Your choice. Dr Drew is a fraud.

 

[anonymous]

Too bad the world is not perfect. Talk therapy alone fails 90% of the time. Your choice. Dr Drew is a fraud.

Suboxone alone fails 100% of the time

Suboxone is a joke

Heroin lite

The physical component of addiciton is not the problem, it's the symptom

The problem is psychological / emotional pain

Fix the problem (emotional pain/fear/anxity/trauma) and the symptom goes away (using opiates to escape pain)

This true of addiciton, and it is also true of most medical "problems" (symptoms)

People like you are also a problem

 

[anonymous]

Suboxone alone fails 100% of the time

Suboxone is a joke

Heroin lite

The physical component of addiciton is not the problem, it's the symptom

The problem is psychological / emotional pain

Fix the problem (emotional pain/fear/anxity/trauma) and the symptom goes away (using opiates to escape pain)

This true of addiciton, and it is also true of most medical "problems" (symptoms)

People like you are also a problem

Wrong. You must be one of those people who don't belIeve in science.

 

[anonymous]

57, you have bought into some kinda pie in the sky bs. Fixing the problem of emotional issues does NOT fix the addiction. Once addicted the brain has changed and there needs to be an individualized multifaceted team approach to weaning a person from their addiction. Last but not least, medication such as Suboxone make that process possible and chance greater for addiction free life. You really don't kn I will what you're talking about. You do a great disservice to people who need help by making ignorant comments. You are clearly not qualified to comment. Further, those of us who have actually been saved by this med, counseling and a team approach DO know its a miracle med. YOU and people like you ARE a problem, as your narrow minded thinking is suicide for addicts.

 

[anonymous]

OMG ... Suboxone saved my life. Celebrities are very quiet concerning their private lives, so we will never truly know the numbers but I would be willing to be that scores of them have had their lives saved by Suboxone. It seems to me that more than a few heroin addicted rock stars and actors suddenly make a rebounds.They begin looking healthy again and are getting back to work. If you think that therapy did this then you are fooling yourself. Even with therapy, 96% of heroin users NEVER get clean. With Suboxone, your chances are 50% or higher. How smart do you have to be to figure that one out? Suboxone does not produce a "high" in properly dosed patients. It only takes away they incredibly intense cravings for opiates.