Diseases accompanied by severe pain syndrome, bring tremendous suffering to patients. Fortunately, there are drugs aimed at relieving severe pain and significantly improving the quality of life.
Buprenorphine
Buprenorphine( trade name Buprenorphine) is a potent opiate analgesic used in medicine as a potent painkiller for cancers and cavitary operations.
The drug can be used as an intravenous or intramuscular injection, as well as sublingually. The advantage of buprenorphine over other analgesics is its low toxicity, lightning-fast action and lack of tolerance to the drug.
Buprenorphine by force of action and duration of analgesic effect is many times higher than morphine. Anesthesia with buprenorphine with the injection method lasts an average of six to eight hours.
The use of the drug in large doses causes maximum pain relief, but there is a high risk of developing respiratory failure, which is fraught with a fatal outcome.
In a number of Western countries and in Ukraine, buprenorphine is used in the treatment of drug dependence. In this case, all drugs containing buprenorphine are used as substitutes. Unlike other means of therapy - methadone - buprenorphine in therapeutic doses does not have the effect of euphoria and does not cause the development of tolerance.
In connection with the possibility of narcotic action, buprenorphine can only be realized if there is a prescription from a doctor. In pharmacy kiosks the drug is sold under the trade names Temgesik, Subutex, Ednok.
Composition
In one ampoule solution contains 0.3 mg of buprenorphine hydrochloride;sublingual tablets contain 2 or 4 mg of buprenorphine hydrochloride and auxiliary elements in the form of corn starch, citric acid, aspartame, etc.
Mechanism of action
The description of the drug says that it does not cause habituation and strong euphoria typical of opiate drugs. However, this is not entirely true information. Drug addicts often mix sublingual tablets with water and use them intravenously, and also inhale crushed tablets to get buzz. In this case, a person experiences a state of extreme bliss, which you want to repeat immediately after the end of the drug. This is how rapid dependence on buprenorphine develops.
By its pharmacological action, buprenorphine is a partial agonist of opiate receptors, that is, the drug binds to opioid receptors, helping to alleviate pain. In this case, its use in medical purposes far from medicine can contribute to the emergence of a state of euphoria and the development of narcotization.
In Russia, buprenorphine is included in the list of narcotic substances, the turnover and use of which is limited and under the control of public services.
Narcotic effect of
Unfortunately, many addicts use analgesic tablets and substitution therapy drugs, which is buprenorphine, not exactly for the intended purpose. Entering a drug into a vein or inhaling it, addicts get quite a lot of pleasure. In this case, buprenorphine is known for not inhibiting the nervous system like heroin or morphine, but, on the contrary, it stimulates. A drug addict can feel a strong anxiety, sometimes turning into a panic, or become aggressive, he develops insomnia.
The drug effect of buprenorphine is developed as a result of exposure to opiate receptors in the brain. If you take Subutex or Ednok against the background of using any other opiate drug, you can get the strongest break-up, since the drug is also an antagonist of opiate receptors, that is, it has a pronounced competing effect with opiates. Buprenorphine "knocks" any other drug from the receptors and takes its place. As a result, one dependence replaces another, which in no way can contribute to the recovery of the addict.
Dependency development
Taking buprenorphine-containing medications to get rid of drug dependence under the supervision of a doctor is not accompanied by addiction, as it does not cause a strong bliss. However, with prolonged and uncontrolled use of the drug, the dependence develops very quickly. The desire to feel the buzz causes the addict to return to buprenorphine again, and when he abolishes the addict develops the strongest break-up.
The buprenorphine withdrawal syndrome is very difficult to tolerate: all signs of classic abstinence are observed in drug addicts: pain in muscles and joints, aches in bones, convulsions, vomiting, panic attacks and aggression. The drug addicts try to alleviate such a difficult state of withdrawal by using opiate drugs or strong tranquilizers, which is like walking around in circles: trying to "jump off" heroin, the addicts sit down on Subutex, and then return to heroin or other drugs. About treatment in this case and speech is not conducted.
Signs and symptoms of use of
The abuse of buprenorphine-containing drugs is no different from heroin dependence, except that buprenorphine has less toxic effect.
Therefore, a person who is dependent on buprenorphine will have all the symptoms of opiate addiction:
- slow speech, often inappropriately pronounced words and phrases;
- striving to be in silence and alone;
- lack of sensitivity to pain stimuli;
- reduced pressure;
- respiratory depression;
- sharp narrowing of the pupil;
- pallor of the skin.
If with such signs a person has traces of injections on his veins, then you have a classic opiate addict. In appearance, it is very difficult to determine what kind of drug a drug user used, it can only be done by analyzing urine.
Consequences of abuse of
The consequences of long-term use of buprenorphine are as sad as the results of taking other opioid drugs:
- development of heart failure;
- destruction of brain cells;
- Teeth injury;
- severe diseases of veins;
- decreased immunity and development against this background of secondary diseases of internal organs;
- high risk of overdose and, as a consequence, the death of a drug addict.
Treatment of dependence
Cope with traction to Subutex can only be in a hospital. First, the patient is helped to get rid of abstinence with anticonvulsants, antidepressants and antipsychotics. Then detox-therapy is carried out, aimed at cleansing the body of toxic substances accumulated during the use of drugs.
Coping with the psychic craving for any drug is the most difficult thing that a drug addict can overcome on the way to recovery. Unfortunately, only units can do this.