For Patients Suffering From Heroin Addiction, Suboxone Can Provide One Road Out
Credit: Heather Brandon for WNPR
By Patrick Skahill, WNPR
Dave Mountuori sipped on a coffee and leaned back in his chair at a doctor’s office in New Haven. He’s 26 years old, and he was there to get a drug that’s turning his life around.
“The Suboxone — you take it. It doesn’t make everything better, but it helps you feel okay to make your life better,” Mountuori said.
Suboxone is a partial opioid. It’s a combination of two drugs: buprenorphine and naloxone.
It’s less widely known than methadone, but unlike that drug, it isn’t acquired solely via regular trips to a clinic. For patients dealing with the highs and lows of addiction, doctors say Suboxone normalizes a patient, mitigates withdrawal symptoms, and in many ways, lets them get their life back.