Two Suboxone taper questions

[amandapi]

I'm new to this board and have been reading a lot about tapering off of Suboxone. I was on 24 mg for almost two years for chronic pain and after having to switch doctors due to new insurance, I was told that it is no longer working and in fact causing hyperalgesia. I have tapered down to 4 mg and started having w/d symptoms at about 14 mg. I know I have been going too fast (about 2 mg every 4 days), but my doctor only gave me 2 weeks worth of pills.

I am very anxious to get this over with and I really need to go back to work or I may lose my job. I have been off for 3 months for a relapse of chronic neuro-lyme disease and was just diagnosed with severe hypothyroidism and heavy metal toxicity. I also am really depressed, mainly about my health problems and not being able to work.

I'm wondering the best way to taper off quickly, with out horrible withdrawals and even if that is possible. I'm afraid if I don't get this over with I will feel sick for months and not be able to function. Also, the doctor treating my lyme disease has prescribed Low Dose Naltrexone and I need to get off the Sub so I can start it to see if it helps. I made the mistake of starting it at 6 mg Sub and it intensified the w/d's so I stopped after two days.

Also, I had a horrible experience getting off Methadone and ended up in the hospital. How does Methadone detox compare to Sub? I have the option to go inpatient to do this and I think I may need to because my depression is so bad.

Thanks for listening and any input

 

[mel486]

Hi amandapi - welcome to the group. I'm sorry to hear about all of your medical problems. I'm not a suboxone expert by any means, but it is my understanding that the taper off of suboxone is slow and sometimes harder than coming off of opiates. I suggest you talk to your physician and see if there is something else you can take to help the withdrawals. With a two week supply and if you're at 2mg now, you will probably experience some with withdrawals, but follow the tapering plan and you may be able to do it with little effects.

I worked it out on paper and if you try a 4 day drop plan, I think you can do it. 14 day supply at 2mg = 28 mg of sub you have to work with. If you drop 20% every 4 days, I think you can get there with what you have. So tomorrow only take 1.8 mg (you'll have to estimate how to cut the pills), then in 4 days drop to 1.5 mg (1.2, 1.0, 0.75, 0.5, 0.25 over 28 days total). You cold turkey dose will be 1/4th of a pill. Hopefully your body can handle that fast drop with minimal w/d's, but I think you will still have some from what other people have said about sub on this forum.

I hope that helps out and I hope that you can get through it w/o too much trouble. Keep us posted on how you are doing.