Buprenorphine Kansas City
Effective Treatment for Opioid Use Disorder
If you struggle with opioid use disorder (OUD), you can be sure that our Kansas City medical team has great compassion for you. We want to help! We may determine that you are a candidate for medication-assisted treatment. Specifically, we might prescribe buprenorphine for you. What is buprenorphine, and how does it work? This page explains some important details.
What Is Buprenorphine?
Buprenorphine is an FDA-approved medication for treating pain and opioid use disorder. It is a partial opioid agonist. It binds to some of the same receptors as opioid medications, meaning that it can produce a similar, but much more subtle, effect. Buprenorphine causes mild euphoria, which means it can reduce cravings for stronger drugs and help patients move toward freedom from substance abuse.
Buprenorphine is classified as a schedule III substance, meaning that it has a lower potential for abuse and dependance than full opioid agonists, such as methadone (which is a schedule II substance).
How Is Buprenorphine Administered?
Buprenorphine can be administered in different ways. For example, it might be prescribed in the form of a sublingual tablet or film, which gets placed under the tongue so it can be released into the bloodstream. It may also come in the form of a transdermal patch, which passes the medication through the skin. Some patients are prescribed weekly or monthly buprenorphine injections.
When getting started with buprenorphine, patients should be in the early stages of opioid withdrawal (12 – 24 hours since their last use of opioids). If you have opioids in your bloodstream when you take buprenorphine, it increases the risk of acute withdrawal symptoms.
Buprenorphine is a long-acting medication. Some patients take it daily, but depending on your response to it, you might be able to switch to alternate-day dosing. Depending on your needs, you may use this medication on a long-term basis to reduce the risk of relapse.
What Are the Benefits of Buprenorphine?
Buprenorphine offers several benefits:
- It can be prescribed in physician offices, making it more widely available than full opioid agonists.
- It has less potential for abuse than opioids and full opioid agonists.
- Combined with behavioral therapy, buprenorphine can contribute to long-term freedom from OUD.
- Most employment drug tests do not detect buprenorphine, so it should not affect your job prospects.
- When it is used as directed, buprenorphine is generally safe and effective.
- Some people experience side effects with buprenorphine, but for most patients, this medication is easy to tolerate and can be used as a long-term treatment for OUD.
Contact Us for Details
Buprenorphine is just one medication that our team sometimes uses to help patients reclaim their health and start living a life that is free of substance abuse. If you would like to learn more about it, or you are ready to consult with our team about treatment options, contact B&L Medical Group in Kansas City at 913-713-1238.
