Author: Entropy
Posted: Sun May 13, 2012 4:49 am
What a tragedy it is that so many health professionals are so thoroughly misinformed on the pharmaceutics that are unique to buprenorphine. Instead of researching the multitude of clinical studies done with buprenorphine, they instead lazily refer to the misinformation of an unqualified drug representative who has not the best interest of the patients at heart, or even the doctors they persuade, but rather the manufacturer of the medicine they promote. By convincing prescriber’s that Suboxone is the safest, efficaciously superior, and most DEA approved form of buprenorphine the manufacturer Reckitt Benckiser monopolizes the market. As a result patients suffer, and doctors (Perhaps unknowingly) violate the Hippocratic Oath to do no harm. For if a physician has the power to improve the quality of life for a patient simply by writing a prescription, but choose not to make available for the patient the option to afford the same life-saving medication at a cost they can afford by allowing a generic, then such a violation ought to be malpractice. But that is just my reasoning.
I am fortunate enough to have discovered a physician that gladly writes my monthly supply of buprenorphine for the generic equivalent. He specializes in psychiatry and has extensive experience with various types of addictions. As well as various types of addicts. Some of whom have taken advantage of his thoughtfulness and compassion. No need to elaborate, sense most of us here already know the mentality of the addict: One can easily imagine how a doctor like that could easily be exploited. Sense qualities like kindness and hope, as well as giving the patient the benefit of the doubt are presented as weaknesses to an addict looking to get what they want. However, out of his 90-100 patients being treated with the buprenorphine alone formulation, the majority are doing just as well, if not better, than those limited to the brand name Suboxone. I say better only because the recovering addict has one less thing to worry about by knowing they’ll be able to afford their bupe. I have never posted here before, or anywhere else for that matter, but this topic is very important to me so I could not resist responding. My apologies if I am just reiterating what is already known, but I hate to see people suffer. Especially when a viable treatment option emerges in which countless studies have proven successful, yet still remains out of reach for so many simply because a business wants to maximize profits through unjustly high costs of it’s product.
The best thing we can do is make sure we ourselves understand how this medication really works. Knowing that Buprenorphine has such a higher binding affinity for the mu-opioid receptor system than naloxone even when administered intravenously demonstrates the absurdity of such a combination. For that reason Suboxone is no better equipped to be abuse proof than its generic and single component counter-part buprenorphine. If you struggle to pay for brand name, I suggest you inform your prescriber what the data shows. thanks for reading my contribution. Or skipping right past it 
Either way, good luck everyone with your bupe treatment, I hope it has been as successful for you as it has been for me! *Happy Dance*
