Posted by Elizabeth on February 1, 2002, at 23:44:32
In reply to Re: What is buprenorphine like? » Elizabeth, posted by MB on January 31, 2002, at 2:12:54
> They gave me an ampule and a straw and said suck the whole thing under your tongue and hold it there for as long as possible (of course, detoxing, I was salivating badly, and the buprenorphine was pretty quickly diluted...seemed like a waste). I don't know how much was in the ampule: glass bottle with a scored, breakable neck.
These ampules have 1 mL in them. It's easy to see why it would have been pretty ineffective for you, yes.
> > Have you ever experienced heroin withdrawal without buprenorphine?
>
> Yeah, but I had tons of Xanax and clonidine. I prefere benzos and clonidine when it comes to easing opiate detox (clonidine stopped the chills and the Xanax let me sleep--for a little while at least).I haven't heard many favorable things about clonidine, but it's good that it worked for you. Didn't they give you any clonidine and/or benzos the time you had the buprenorphine?
> > BTW, when the doctor in the hospital gave you the IM injection, do you know what the dose was?
>
> No I don't. Probably the same amount that was in the ampules they gave me to use sublingually.Of course it would work better, then! Silly docs.
> I'm looking in the PDR and the .3 mg ampules look like the ones they gave me.
That's the only size they come in (the solution is 0.3 mg/mL, and the ampules contain 1 mL).
> I get activated on opiates, but they also give me narcoleptic type nods. One time I was doing fine, standing in the check out line in the supermarket, and I fell asleep (standing up!!) right when the checker was reading my total. I feel like getting out and "living life" on opiates, but I do tend to nod in weird situations.
D'oh! I never had that problem on buprenorphine or any of the other opioids I've tried (e.g., hydrocodone, morphine). They're just activating for me.
> I kind of liked Stadol...I think kappa agonism is pretty strange.
How was it like and different from a regular (full agonist) opioid?
> I've never understood how a drug could be a "partial" agonist at a receptor. It seems counterintuitive to my relatively pharmacologically naive view on things that something could agonize and antagonize a receptor at the same time. How does that work?
It's a little confusing, yes. My understanding is that it works as an agonist at low concentrations and as an antagonist at high concentrations, so there's a ceiling on the intrinsic effect that it can have. (This means there is less potential for "abuse.")
-elizabeth
poster:Elizabeth
thread:91813
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020131/msgs/92582.html