Posted by Elizabeth on March 12, 2002, at 8:35:19
In reply to Re: sidetrack from Addiction, posted by reese1 on March 9, 2002, at 17:54:17
> do you take the medication buprenix - through injection
>
> or sublingualy (spelling?Neither. Intranasally. (I've posted about this in the past -- do a search. The way I do it is kind of inconvenient; a pharmacist might be able to make you a metered-dose nasal inhaler, like the one used for Stadol NS). The effective dose seems to be close to the recommended doses for intramuscular injection.
Taking Buprenex solution sublingually is supposed to be a less reliable route because people tend to swallow a lot of it. The formulations intended for SL use (Subutex, Temgesic) are probably more reliable.
You asked about intramuscular injection and the size needles to use. The optimal size is probably 1 1/4", 22 ga. (I say this because I sometimes get a generic that comes in prefilled syringes, and that's the size they use. You might want to ask for this generic if you're injecting it, since retail pharmacies often don't carry a lot of different syringes.)
> p.s. i was taking it .6 dose but i have discovered that it is to high. I feel dopey and a little drugged out. Not in the high sense of dope or whatever.
That is quite a bit to take all at once, especially if you're just starting and if you're injecting it. I started at 0.15 mg (t.i.d., intranasally) because the side effects at 0.3 mg (1 mL) hit too hard (especially nausea).
On the other hand, if you're just taking it once a day, and if that works for you, it seems like a reasonable total daily dose. It's curious that some people can take it once daily. It seems to me that when people are taking it for addiction maintenance treatment, they can get away with taking it once daily, whereas for pain it's supposed to be used about thrice daily (which I find is necessary for me) for pain. It seems that the dosing schedule is variable when it's used as an antidepressant.
HTH
-elizabeth
poster:Elizabeth
thread:93100
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020307/msgs/97582.html