Suboxone/Methadone comparison

[jamiemarie33]

I was just wondering from someone who really knows,  A 8-2 mg tablet of suboxone compares to how many milligrams of methadone. I was told a 8-2 mg suboxone is equal to 30-40 milligrams od methadone. I really would like to know. Thanks, Jamie

[taranunez]

I'm on right now tapering down from 185mg of Methadone am now at 95mgs, but I'm thinking about switching over to suboxone because where I live it's about $380 cheaper/mo --- should I just stop my methadone for 3 days and go to get suboxone. I'm just curious and have really been thinking about switching.  Methadone Is  VERY addictive, and I feel as if I did trade heroin or other opiates for a LEGAL drug. although Suboxone is the same and used as the same it is still got the blocker in it. Although, on methadone I haven't used in 2 years nxt month. I'm just a little nervous, and was also wondering the different effects that suboxone/subutex has on the brain & anxiety. Tapering off of methadone has REALLY had my nerves out of wack.
Just a little lost on what to do, I DEFINITELY do not want a "Crutch" for the rest of my life.

[ProblematicDavid]

Apples and oranges....bottom line, everyone is different. What works for one may not work for another. Comparing one drug to another is different for everyone and everyone will have different opinions. Just find what works for you, then find the dose that works for you, then live your life and be happy. Stop listening to other people and learn to listen to yourself and you will never go wrong. God bless!!

[weaver71]

I know this is an old thread, but wanted to agree that methadone/sub comparisons are not accurate in the body. My last dose of methadone was 160mgs, tapered down from 250mgs in a month, and 8 mgs of sub held me over just fine. I may have been below 200mgs longer than that, from reading my post above from 2012. I was pretty out of my mind. Anyway, it is best to have a doctor who uses the COWS, watches you dose, and walks you throughout the process. Methadone to sub is a tricky thing, and few doctors know it is even possible, much less how to do it right. Most doctors told me I had to be down to 20-30mgs methadone to switch, that would have taken a year or more, but I found a doctor who actually knew how methadone and subs work and why, greedy as he was, he saved my life. Being bipolar 1, a year of tapering was a simple impossibility, so I am glad I found a smart doctor who could help me. I suggest that to anyone, go to as many doctors as you have to, but find one who knows what they are talking about. It took me 3 trys to find a good sub doctor. My first one told me to go in the street and get more methadone to taper, the next one said I had to be on subs for 3 years for them to work, then I found a doctor who actually studied buprentorphine and how to use it. So, find a good doctor to help and use all the therapy resources they suggest and provide, and then some.  I can't say that enough.

[Kev10]

I'm on 113mils of meth I just stop going Saturday it's Tuesday I've been taking some oxy to get threw the day. I have a scpit of subs I'm going to wait tell Saturday to take a sub 2mg well I be fine I gunna be in a withdrawal before I take it. I been on meth for 5years how many days should I wait? I have subusovl.

[Brina81]

You only have to wait 36 hours

[Siqpuppie]

I went cold turkey off 100mgs(plus 160mgs of oxy ontop of it everynight).   Waited about 72hrs(utter hell), or close to it.  Took 8mg and felt fine.   Its all about how low u taper down/how long u wait ratio.   Thats all it is....  I've done it another time where I tapered down to 10mg done a day and switched right over no wait time....

[ScarrieAnne]

Suboxone is addictive, I was on it for 3 years and jumped at 3mgs , I am 45 days clean today and still in w/d. Please don't say it isn't addictive, Bupe is 140 times stronger than morphine. The withdrawal is long and severe, very similar to Methadone. You are just trading one poison for another. I am not going to go into a rant about Subs and what they do and why you think you don't feel high, all the research is out there and in here. Lets try to put accurate information out there guys! Good Luck! X. C.

[nayde]

How long did it take for the ppl switching from methadone to suboxone to feel better on the switch....thier stable dose....or felt fie? Days? Weeks?

[c12345188]

P.S. Very happy you're doing well and prayers for continued success! Suboxone does seem preferrable to methadone for a lot of practical reasons.
Just saying mg's cannot be compared to mg's so closely with most meds, especially these.  

[c12345188]

I'm sure you mean well but I don't think that's correct. The equivalent of higher doses of methadone to suboxone then would cause a suboxone overdose using your calculations.If someone were on 150 mg of methadone, you are saying they would need to take almost 19 x 8 mg suboxone! That would be deadly!!!! Suboxone and methadone are just different. I think the 8mg to 30-40 mg is a very close comparison.If a doctor told you that they should lose their license.

[turner3113]

8 mg of suboxone is the equivalent to only 10 mg of methadone I've asked doctors and read plenty of forums on this subject I was really strung out on oxycoden and roxy I've been taking suboxone for 2 1/2 years and have really come a long way from where I was I thank God everyday

[Pochon]

That's good. Im in the middle of trying some hard decisions right now.

[Siqpuppie]

You sir are giving incorrect information as most people on this forum. The ignorance here is amazing. 8mg of Subs (which personallly i dont think anyone needs past 6). Ive never seen a dope fiend need more than 4-6mg.  Anyway, its equal to roughly 80mgs....  So basic rule of thumb is 10mg methadone = 1mg sub.

[SarahOz]

Hi welcome. This is a really old thread as you can see no one is currently posting on it and many of the posters are no longer here. You will see the current posts on the forum page. Please feel welcome to write a post to introduce yourself.

[1sorryperson]

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[cgarand23]

i beg to differ on that as well suboxone is highly addictive took me 3 weeks to feel complelely normal it sucked never go thru that again

[cgarand23]

one 8 miligram sub is equal to 30 miligrams of methadone your right

[weaver71]

That is a difficult question. How much methadone where you taking and for how long? How long was your methadone taper? Anyway, I was on 100-200mg methadone a day. I switched to 150mg Norco for 4 days and waited until I hit 25 on the COWS scale. about 3 days. Look up COWS scale at that is what your doctor should be using to determine time of induction, not time after last dose. If you start a new thread by clicking on "Post A Question" at the top of the page and you will get a lot more feed back. This thread is from 2009. Good luck and congrats and getting your life back.

[akhrisandrews]

jamiemarie33 or anyone else with a past experience,

i am in the process of weening off of methadone to switch to suboXone/subutex. i am currently at 30mg, then tomorrow will go to 20mg for two days then 10mgs for two days, then nothing. anyways, my question is this; i have been told by some people that i can immediately start taking subs once i get down to 30/20mgs of methadone. but i have also been told i have to get down to 30-20mgs of methadone, wait 3days then take a sub. i have been told both of these theories by doctors. some tell me if i take a sub the morning after dosing on methadone it will make the withdraws worse, but then i have also been told that it will not cause me to have withdraws as long as i am down to 30-20mgs. how eXactly did you make the transaction. i have heard both theories and i am looking for answers from people that have made the switch and their eXperiences, not an opinion. thank you so very much.

[akhrisandrews]

jamiemarie33 or anyone else with a past experience,

i am in the process of weening off of methadone to switch to suboXone/subutex. i am currently at 30mg, then tomorrow will go to 20mg for two days then 10mgs for two days, then nothing. anyways, my question is this; i have been told by some people that i can immediately start taking subs once i get down to 30/20mgs of methadone. but i have also been told i have to get down to 30-20mgs of methadone, wait 3days then take a sub. i have been told both of these theories by doctors. some tell me if i take a sub the morning after dosing on methadone it will make the withdraws worse, but then i have also been told that it will not cause me to have withdraws as long as i am down to 30-20mgs. how eXactly did you make the transaction. i have heard both theories and i am looking for answers from people that have made the switch and their eXperiences, not an opinion. thank you so very much.

[Mark4468]

I seriously question the dosage comparison, too - 8mg Sub = 40mg Methadone..??

I've taken 8-16mg of Suboxone to prevent withdraw and laid in bed the whole first day with nausea.  After only doing about 5 bags of heroin a day, I took one 8mg Sub and three hours later was sneezing/weak/chills/etc.

If I take 20 - 30mg. of methadone I'm fine.  I know people are different, but the comparison isn't even close by my experience.

[ufindme2008]

I beg your pardon, but Subs are VERY addictive and very hard to get off of.  It is a drug from Hell.

[melissa929]

There is an 8-2 mg suboxone. I was just prescribed these and that's exactly what it says on the bottle 8-2 mg. I was on 40 mg of meth and transitioned over to these and feel wonderful. I would much rather b on these than meth

[jamiemarie33]

Thanks so much! That was really helpful! I was on methadone for almost 2 years and made the switch to suboxone and have been on that for 6 months. So I do have experience with both. But the more I come down on my dose the more nervous I get about detoxing off subs all together.I watched my husband go through it because he detoxed quicker than me. He was taking a tiny sliver of a sub every 2-3 days at the end when he stopped taking them and he went through withdrawls (bad) for 3 weeks to a month. I have a rambonxious 3 year old son and feel I cant handle that (withdrawls for that long)
So now im down to 4mg of sub. a day. I take 1/2 of a 8mg pill in the morning.
It just bugs me that the doctors that are prescribing all these medications (methadone, suboxone, subutex, etc...) dont seem to know ENOUGH about what they are prescribing.
My doctor had me go down to 40mg of methadone before I made the switch to suboxone. Then he started me on 24mg of suboxone. I feel like that was taking a couple steps backwards for me. It seems to me if an 8mg suboxone is around or equal to 40mg. of methadone, him putting me on 24mg of sub. would be like me being on 120mg of methadone. That doesnt make much sense to me.
I feel like im rambling, but one more thing is my doctor and most doctors tell you that detoxing off subs only takes a few days, then you are back to normal, which I know is NOT TRUE! I know everyone is different and some peoples withdrawls are not as long and as bad as others, but everyone that Ive ever known (including myself and my husband) experience withdrawls lasting WAY LONGER than just a few days.
So that is why I was wondering the milligram comparison between the two.
Just wanted to know:
8mg of suboxone = _____mg of methadone
Thanks,
Jamie Marie

[dizzy83]

Hey guys , in my experiance with both methadone and subutex/subxone is

I was on 16mg of subutex my doc took me off subutex because after 6years subutex wasn't holding me at my higest i went to 24mg and it still wasn't holding me.

So my doc swopped me to methadone at he put me on 40ml but did ask if i was ok with just 40mg and i said yeah thinking 40mls was more than enough.Well i was wrong i went upto 60mls and it still wasn't holding me infact i felt worse on methadone 60mls than i did on 16mg of subutex .so in the end i thought fxxk this i want off metahdone before i end up on over 100mls of the green stuff.

So i tapered down to 50mls of methadone then to 45mls and i couldn't wait till 30mls like you're suppose to inorder to switch to subutex/subxone so i jumped off methadone at 45mls .

I waited 28hours after my 45mls of methadone dose and i took my first 8mg of sub and it didn't work so i continued to take 8mg 2xaday so in effect it was 16mgaday .
After 3days of pure hell withdrawals i was ok again and felt good back on subutex at 16mgs.

So really i'd say every 8mg of subutex/subxone is to 40mls of methadone so i'd agree with the other two memebers who also said the same above just through pure experiance on both meth and subs doses.


Also subxone is different to subutex because subxone has naltrexone present a opaite blocker .Where subutex just contains bup .

Hope this helps xxx

[mtgoat911]

jamie, just checking back in with you to see what you decided

[BQ77]

Dang.  DJ Sleep beat me to the punch.  As I was reading this I was thinking exactly what he said...just in other words.  I have taken just about anything that is a pill and an opiate.  I'm the most experienced with hydrocodone, but I have taken plenty of methadone and to me, methadone wasn't that much different than any other opiate I had taken before.  The only thing similar about Suboxone and Methadone is they are prescribed to help others get off other drugs.  Methadone never made sense to me though because it seemed to be the ultimate "trading one bad thing for another".  So yeah, oranges and apples.  

I will disagree with something though.  Suboxone may not be near as mentally addicting as actual opiates....but proof with this forum alone shows that it can be physically addicting meaning people who have taken Suboxone for awhile experience withdrawls when they stop.  I'm not one of the anti-suboxone people either, I think it can be a life saver for many.  I just want to make sure people get the right information as it seems many doctors out there tell their patients that Suboxone is not addicting and the won't experience withdrawls.  If you take Suboxone for it's intended purpose and take it 100% responsibly and try to taper and come off ASAP, you still may experience withdrawl symptoms, they are just a heck of a lot less crappy than other withdrawls.  

In my unprofessional opinion though, I believe that taking 4mg of Suboxone is better than taking 40mg of Methadone.  Just my opinion though.  Take care.

Barry

[DJ_Sleep]

oranges and apples. methadone is a narcotic opiate. suboxone contains buprenorphine, which takes care of withdrawal symptoms but will not elevate mood. methadone will make you happy but it is addictive as suboxone is not.

[jamiemarie33]

Thanks so much mtgoat911. I really appreviate it.
Im just curious because Ive been doing this for 2 years now and have been feeling like its a never ending battle. I know its something Im gonna have to deal  with for the rest of my life along with my being an alcholic. i just wanted to know where I am at as far as my progression. I cant wait for the day that I DONT have to take a pill to feel normal and go about my day.

[mtgoat911]

sounds about right ... 8mgs is the same as 40mgs of methadone, sounds like an accurate conversion to me,
when i was on 32mgs of suboxone i felt the same buzz as when i was on 200mgs of methadone
i am not sure about the exact conversion, google opiate conversion chart
you will be loaded on information about the "ceiling effect"
there was a girl on here who had a great chart on her profile page, not sure if its still up
,i am telling you this as personal experience as i have been on both these drugs, i can not honestly tell you that i know and can prove sub. = methadone in this amount, its just my experience
i will send you the link later to that chart, its defiantly more scientific than i am or will ever be