Pain is an unpleasant experience that not only affects your physical health but also affects you emotionally. For pain relief, most healthcare providers can prescribe opioid medication such as Oxycodone, Hydrocodone, Norco, and Codeine. These drugs are most effective for short or long-term pain management, but they carry potential risks of addiction, dependence, and many more. That’s why patients can seek safe and opioid risk-free medication for pain. In this condition, doctors prescribe Suboxone for pain relief. In this blog, we discuss does Suboxone helps with pain management, and how does suboxone help with pain.
Suboxone For Pain Relief: Benefits, Side Effects, and Alternatives
What is Suboxone Pill?
Suboxone is a brand name of a sublingual film, which is prescribed as an opioid use disorder medication. It is also used for medication-assisted treatment (MAT) for opioid withdrawal symptoms and to reverse an opioid overdose. Suboxone helps to control long-term relief from opioid addiction and make an easy recovery journey for patients. It comes in dissolvable strips or films and sublingual pills or tablets form that dissolve under the tongue or inside the cheek. Both forms get the same result, but film is quickly dissolved than tablets.
How Suboxone Works in the Body?
Suboxone has two active substances, which make it a better OUD treatment option. Thes substance is Buprenorphine and Naloxone. Buprenorphine is an opioid partial agonist, which produces euphoria at low to moderate doses, but its effects are less effective than full agonists such as Methadone and Heroin. It reduces the effects of physical dependency to opioids and manages cases of overdose and potential for misuse. While Naloxone is an opioid antagonist, which helps reverse to opioid overdose. It acts by blocking the effect of opioids and restoring breathing. It is long-lasting due to buprenorphine, staying in the system up to 60 hours.
Does Suboxone Help With Pain?
Yes, Suboxone works as an alternative to opioid drugs for chronic pain management, but that depends on the healthcare expert. Don’t try to take Suboxone for pain without expert guidance. Components of Suboxone, Buprenorphine, and Naloxone help to recover sensitivity to pain. Among them, Buprenorphine plays acts important role in pain management and provides mild to moderate pain relief. Only Buprenorphine can be effective for pain or opioid use disorder (OUD), but Suboxone is an effective OUD treatment that prevents misuse without the high risk of addiction because it’s a combination product of buprenorphine and naloxone; thus, Suboxone is a safe and effective option for pain management.
Benefits of Suboxone for Pain Management
Mostly, the doctors prescribed Suboxone for pain control when patients have a history of opioid dependence or need a long-lasting pain reliever with lower potential for tolerance and misuse. If you have decided to use Suboxone for pain management, then ensure its benefits and disadvantages. Let’s discuss its benefits
- It can be helpful for those people who are facing both chronic pain and an opioid use disorder.
- The drug is suitable for those people who are facing chronic pain but seeking low-abuse treatment.
- Suboxone is also prescribed for long-lasting pain control in some cases, because it has less risk of addiction.
Now, explain the disadvantages of Suboxone
- Its MTS treatment aims not to replace one opioid with another, which can gradually stop all opioids at the same time.
- Always stop Suboxone help of a taper of dose under the doctor’s supervision, because it also leads to withdrawal symptoms like other opioids.
- It has lower abuse potential than all opioid medications, but still, it can be misused and lead to more potential side effects.
Limitations & Risks
Every medicine has two sides, one is beneficial, and another is potnetial risks. Every prescription medication needs some extra attention and care. Similarly, Suboxone is most productive and secure for OUD and pain relief, but it also carries some potnetial risks and limitations that occur for frequent use and drug interactions. Thus, this drug is used under the doctor’s supervision.
- Suboxone causes physical dependence due to prolonged or frequent use. It is not high-risk like opioids, but the body can crave the medication’s presence.
- Withdrawal symptoms of suboxone are nausea, headaches, muscle aches, anxiety, insomnia, and sweating. If avoiding this symptom, always stop the Suboxone in the taping process.
- Unfortunately, taking a huge amount of Suboxone for pain control or mixing the suboxone with alcohol or other depressants leads to serious side effects or coma, or death.
Side Effects Of Suboxone
Side effects commonly range from mild or serious side effects; mild side effects are temporary and easily manageable, which occur when starting or stopping the drugs. These side effects are peripheral edema, mouth redness, excessive sweating, burning mouth syndrome, nausea, headache, constipation, insomnia, and mild allergic reaction. While serious side effects are looking in every case and it’s life-threatening and requires emergency medical attention.
These serious side effects are
- adrenal insufficiency
- respiratory depression
- liver damage
- central nervous system depression
- gallbladder issues
- dental problems
- increased pressure in your brain
- orthostatic hypotension
- severe allergic reaction
- serious opioid withdrawal symptoms
Alternatives to Suboxone for Pain Relief
There are many alternative options available for pain relief for people unable to take Suboxone. These alternative medications are equally effective and may be a better option for an opioid that cures an individual than the actual drug itself.
Non-Opioid Medication
- NSAIDS (naproxen and ibuprofen)
- Tylenol
- Certain antidepressants
- Antiseizure medications (Gabapentin and pregabalin)
Physical Therapy
- Heat or cold modalities
- Electrical stimulation
- Dry needling
- Massage
- Exercise
- Functional mobility training
Complementary Treatments
- Meditation
- Yoga
- Tai chi
- Spinal manipulation
- Hypnosis
- Biofeedback
- Relaxation technique
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
How fast does Suboxone work for pain?
Buprenorphine can be effective for pain relief, which is present in Suboxone. It starts working within 30 to 60 minutes after taking the tablets or film. The peak effects of the suboxone dose are about 2 to 3 hours, and its single-dose effects last about 24 hours.
How much Suboxone for pain?
Suboxone initial dose starts at 2 mg and increases the dose within 16 to 24 mg per day if required. Using these doses divided into 3 to 4 times a day. It’s a common calculation, but it actually does determine based on the patient’s drug tolerance and health condition.
Is Suboxone stronger than other opioids for pain relief?
Suboxone is not stronger than other opioid medications, but its active substance, Buprenorphine, is a full agonist and potent opioid. It is 25 to 50 times more potent than morphine per milligram.
Final Thoughts
Suboxone is a combination of buprenorphine and naloxone, which helps to manage opioid use disorder. It’s also used as an effective alternative to opioids due to buprenorphine, which is effective for pain relief. Those people can frequently use suboxone who suffer from both opioid addiction and chronic pain. If you are seeking a safe and effective pain reliever, then using Suboxone and an alternative to Suboxone with the doctor’s consultation is recommended.