These are related to decreased blood flow over a long period of time. The lack of blood supply essentially starves tissues of nutrients and oxygen. Once you have been attended to and regained stability, be sure to talk to your Suboxone doctor about it. Sometimes, you may take alcohol involuntary due to a pre-existing addiction. Your doctor will work with you to ensure you withdraw from alcohol use and focus on your Suboxone treatment.
Most absorption happens in the small intestine, and some occurs in the stomach. That’s why it’s sometimes recommended that people eat something before drinking. Having some food in the way can slow absorption and help prevent feelings of drunkenness. Suboxone is one of the most popular prescription drugs used to effectively suppress the desire for opioids and alleviate withdrawal symptoms.
What To Do if You’re Taking Both Alcohol and buprenorphine (Suboxone®)
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. The chances of taking Suboxone and alcohol together by mistake are low since Suboxone prescriptions come with specific advisement on how to consume the drug. Suboxone and alcohol should never be taken together because the mixture can lead to serious harm or death. If you feel that any of our content is inaccurate, out-of-date, or otherwise questionable, please contact at All Addiction Resource content is medically reviewed or fact checked to ensure as much factual accuracy as possible. Alcohol is a substance that depresses activity in the central nervous system, which consists of the brain and spinal cord.
How Alcohol Affects Your Opioid Recovery
You might know others who drink while taking buprenorphine (Suboxone®), but they’re risking their health. They also risk accidents, permanent brain damage, organ failure, and more. If you’ve ever had an opioid dependence, you might be familiar with buprenorphine (Suboxone®). Buprenorphine (Suboxone®) is a Schedule III narcotic medication prescribed for those who are looking to end their opioid use. It’s a mixture of buprenorphine (an opioid agonist) and naloxone (an opioid antagonist). It binds to opioid receptors in the brain, tricking the mind into thinking it’s getting its regular drug of choice.
Struggling with addiction? Discover if Suboxone is right for you with our FREE Assessment!
That being said, alcohol shouldn’t be used as a substitute for buprenorphine (Suboxone®) because it doesn’t treat opioid withdrawal or cravings. 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. Food and Drug Administration state that people can experience serious side effects when combining alcohol and Suboxone.2 Doctors are encouraged to tell patients not to mix these substances. The alcohol in your system is also a central nervous system depressant, slowing your breathing and reaction times.
Addiction Treatment For Polysubstance Abuse
It binds to opioid receptors, preventing opioids from attaching to them. More than that, it can force opioids from receptors they’re already attached to. Doctors have heard everything during their training and while on hospital rounds. Being honest with a prescriber can help them give you the right advice to avoid drug interactions.
Choose from a menu of options that include medication-assisted treatment, such as Suboxone®, Sublocade®, and Vivitrol®, as well as psychiatry, addiction counseling and mental health therapy. All of these services are accessible in-person and via telemedicine. We offer traditional approaches to recovery, including the 12 Step model. Sometimes, people need to be prescribed medications to assist in their recovery journey. In some cases, people may become mixing suboxone and alcohol dependent on Suboxone in a way that isn’t healthy. It may become a part of the opioid use disorder instead of a treatment for it.
- ” You might wonder if skipping a dose of buprenorphine (Suboxone®) will make it safer to consume alcohol, but unfortunately, it doesn’t.
- The symptoms of an overdose include extreme drowsiness, confusion, loss of consciousness, and slowed or stopped breathing.
- Mixing Suboxone and alcohol can be extremely dangerous and potentially life-threatening.
- MATClinics therapies are personalized to meet your individual needs to help you achieve positive change for the long haul.
- In the long term, using alcohol and Suboxone together can affect the heart rate and decrease blood flow, making respiratory infections more likely.
The list of harm that alcohol causes to your body is pretty long and ranges from detrimental to fatal. Having said that, it is safe to emphasize that mixing Suboxone and alcohol can be pretty dangerous. Most of us already know that drinking a lot of alcohol can cause severe damage to body organs such as the liver.
