Suboxone Vs. Sublocade – What You Should Know About These Two Opioid Medications?

Suboxone – Treatment, Uses, Side Effects & Resources - Compass Detox

When a person suffers from an addiction disorder, it is impossible to recover from it on their own without getting proper treatment at the rehab. And it is a fact, as even a person is willing to overcome addiction, they physically cannot do it. And the reason is the lack of correct opioid medication.

And such medication is sublocade medication and suboxone dosing. Even though there are several other addiction recovery medications are there, but we are going to focus on these two medications for now as they are vastly prescribed. We are going to discuss the similarities and the differences between these two medications.

The ingredients

Both of these medications are partial opioid agonist drugs and that’s the reason both these medication contains the active drug called buprenorphine. Meaning these drugs work in similar ways as opioid medications but these are not opioid drugs as a whole.

Suboxone is a tad bit different than sublocade shot as it also contains naloxone. But this compound is in the class of opioid antagonists as it works by jamming the opioid effects.

The use

Well as stated above, these medications are for adults who are suffering from substance use disorder as well as opioid dependence. Opioid dependence is a health condition in which the person gets addicted to opioid drugs, more specifically illicit drugs.

All suboxone doctors use sublocade treatment and suboxone dosage in a different part of their recovery phase. Using opioid medications is the first step towards recovery. Here’s why…

When the patient will arrive at, the doctors will conduct a proper diagnosis and then begin the suboxone detox procedure. In this procedure, all the substances and toxic residue will be pulled out of their body. Soon after that, their body will begin to have withdrawal symptoms. These symptoms can be pretty severe, enough to kill a person.

Only by taking suboxone medications, can a person cope with the symptoms without much difficulty. Not only for the withdrawal phase but these drugs also helps with cravings. The cravings can last long after discharge from the sublocade clinics near me, and so patients will need to continue taking the suboxone as long as the cravings last.

 On the other hand, sublocade is only for the maintenance phase. That means, during the withdrawal phase, for at least 7 days before starting the sublocade treatment, patients will be prescribed different buprenorphine of naloxone medicines.

One this similar about these opioid drugs are, these two medications are prescribed to take alongside therapy or other mental health treatment, especially when the patient has co-occurring disorders.

The forms and dosage

When it comes to forms and dosage, these two medications are dissimilar.

There are suboxone pills as well as injections available. The doctor will prescribe any of these two methods of medication upon checking the patient’s addiction stage. Taking the pill is different from other medications as these pills should not be chewed or swallowed. It should be placed under the tough and leave to dissolve little by little. The doctors will decide if the patient should take the suboxone dose on their own or at their office.

Sublocade on the other hand is only available in the injection. The sublocade doctors will inject you once a month and for that, you need to visit the suboxone clinic as you cannot inject yourself at home.

The side effects

Opioid medications cannot be without their side effects, so it’s not a surprise when many patients have reported to their sublocade doctors near me about the side effects. The same goes for suboxone treatment.

Suboxone side-effects:

  • Stomach and back pain
  • Blurry vision
  • Burning pain in your tongue or mouth
  • Constipation
  • Excessive sweating
  • Feeling lightheaded or dizzy
  • Headache
  • Irregular heartbeat
  • Nausea and vomiting
  • Numbness or redness in your mouth
  • Short attention span
  • Tiredness   
  • Trouble falling or staying asleep

Sublocade side effects:

  • Nausea and vomiting
  • Constipation
  • Redness, itching, and pain where the drug was injected
  • Headache
  • Feeling lightheaded or dizzy
  • Tiredness

As we can see, suboxone is way heavier on the side-effects than sublocade. And that’s the reason why doctors always run frequent blood tests on the patients to ensure suboxone effects on the liver are not there.

There is one other thing that differentiates suboxone from sublocade, and it is a kind of important one. Patients are less tend to get addicted to suboxone rather than sublocade price.