Suboxone® and Alcohol Interactions and Risks
Taking high doses of Suboxone can cause severe breathing problems, coma, and death. Some of these side effects may go away within a few days or a couple of weeks. If they’re more severe or don’t go away, talk with your doctor or pharmacist.
Suboxone and Alcohol: How Do They Interact?
For this reason, healthcare providers must be closely involved in the recovery process, along with other treatment providers. If you are taking Suboxone for any other reason, you should wait at least 24 hours after your last dose before drinking alcohol. This is to give your body time to clear the drug out of your bloodstream before you add alcohol to the mix. While Suboxone doesn’t directly treat alcohol use disorder, it may lend itself to preventing individuals from being in situations where they are drinking or consuming other substances. Yes, it can be dangerous to drink alcohol while taking Suboxone for OUD. If you suspect an overdose due to Suboxone and alcohol, call 911 immediately.
Phases of treatment
Join 40,000+ People Who Receive Our Newsletter Get valuable resources on addiction, recovery, wellness, and our treatments delivered directly to your inbox. The combination can also put substantial stress on major organs like the kidney and liver, especially if an individual has abused alcohol in the past. Suboxone in itself can cause a number of uncomfortable symptoms, especially when taken in high doses. Common side effects of Suboxone include mirtazapine with alcohol constipation, drowsiness, vertigo, and lethargy.
Slow breathing is a clear sign that you are in real danger, and you need to act quickly. Combining Suboxone and alcohol can significantly affect your breathing rate leading to an increased risk of suffering a cardiac arrest. Whether you are taking prescription Suboxone or abusing it, you need to familiarize yourself with drugs that are most likely to have an adverse reaction with it.
Many individuals tend to use multiple drugs at the same time. Thus, if an individual uses Suboxone to avoid opioids, they may also spend less time drinking alcohol. Suboxone doesn’t dampen the effect of alcohol like it does with other opioids. Instead, people who mix these substances often experience stronger intoxication symptoms while drinking an amount they once considered safe. Attempting to rid your system of substance use group ideas these substances on your own can be calamitous and will only decrease your chances of success.
Drug forms and strengths
- Combining alcohol with Suboxone could slow down brain functions that regulate decision-making.
- This list does not contain all drugs that may interact with Suboxone.
- The following information describes dosages that are commonly used or recommended.
- If a person is already suffering from an underlying health condition, combining Suboxone and alcohol can have unpredictable and permanent side effects.
- You should take Suboxone according to your doctor’s instructions.
Calling The Recovery Village can get you into a treatment program but cannot send emergency services to your location. If you ever find yourself mixing these two substances involuntarily, monitor your breathing carefully and control your alcohol intake. Remember that it takes some time before the alcohol is fully absorbed into your bloodstream, which makes it easy to consume much more than what you intended.
The Effects of Mixing Buprenorphine and Alcohol
However, combining Suboxone with alcohol can lead to hazardous consequences, even when following your doctor’s instructions. Therefore, it’s crucial to be aware of the potential dangers of combining Suboxone and alcohol and take necessary precautions to stay safe. your bac depends on Suboxone works as a partial opioid agonist (weak opioid) and locks itself onto the brain’s opioid receptors. This mechanism helps alleviate withdrawal symptoms, lower cravings, and prevent other potent opioids from interacting with opioid receptors in the brain. Suboxone is a combination of two drugs, namely buprenorphine and naloxone. The two drugs work by satiating the brain’s craving for opioids without accelerating the withdrawal symptoms.
However, the danger is beyond mere replacement when it comes to Suboxone. Taking Suboxone with benzodiazepines, including Klonopin, can increase the risk of severe side effects. These include severe sedation (sleepiness), breathing problems, coma, and death. Taking Suboxone with benzodiazepines, including Xanax, can increase the risk of severe side effects.
