hi, I have been taking methadone for 7 months now . I am on 10 mg and still have breakthrough RLS symptoms. I have been debating further increasing my dose to 12.5 mg but am worried about the depression that I feel is creeping in.
I am considering asking my GP if I can switch to suboxone, and am interested in any advice anyone might have. If I was to do that, would it be a straight switch? And what would be the appropriate dose?
Many thanks in advance.
That would be a good idea to switch as it is rare to have depression on it. I imagine it would be a straight switch but others on this forum are more knowledgeable about that and how much the dose would be.
Thanks Sue
And if I cannot get suboxone, can you recommend anything else?l I could do or which antidepressant you would recommend?
Wellbutrin and trazodone. I don't know if they are available in New Zealand or not.
Thanks again Sue
Subuxone is buprenorphine combined with naloxone. You may not need the naloxon. Also, subuxone usually comes in much larger doses than buprenoprine by itself. If (just over) 10 mg methadone is enough, you may need only about 0.4mg buprenorphine. In any case, it is always good to start low and find your lowest effective dose, also to reduce the chance of side effects. Buprenorphine sublingual tablets work fairly quickly, usually in 20-30 min.
Thanks Lottem. We cannot get buprenorphine in Nz but I know addicts can be prescribed suboxone. I don’t know if dr will prescribe it for me. Are you able to tell me what eff ct naloxone might have on me? I wonder if suboxone dose could be reduced eg by cutting if in tablet form?
Sorry, I don’t know about naloxone effects. Bit most tablets can be cut, provided they are not slow release. I don’t think Suboxone comes in a slow release version, but do check. Ask for the lowest dose. 2mg? You should be able to cut that into quarters.
The attached chart shows various opioid conversion factors. A little difficult to understand, but I think it basically says that for methadone doses under 20mg, the buprenorphine equivalent would be about 13% (4/30). So 10mg of methadone should equate to 1.3mg of buprenorphine. I seem to recall from prior posts here that in practice, people need less than this factor amount of buprenorphine when switching. I'd suggest starting with .5mg and see how it works. It's fast acting, so if you don't get relief within 30 minutes or so, you can take more.
Treating with methadone does not address the cause of the RLS but merely attempts to dampen down the symptoms which is neuroinflammation. The thing causing this neroinflammation in the nerves of your legs is now causing inflammation in the nerves of the brain which is manifesting istself as depression. The cause of the inflammation is most commonly your diet but could be environmental toxins from moulds and industrial chemicals though this is relatively rare.
You can easily find whether the neuroinflammation is caused by food by cleaning up your diet i.e. cutting out refined seed oils, refined carbohydrate and artificial preservatives which are most commonly found in processed foods.
hi there. I am in methadone as well but found that as long as I take 5mg am and pm it works perfectly. I still take Magnesium if I am feeling the slightest tickle begin. Don't know anything about suboxone, so can't help there. Hope you can work this out and find complete relief!
Teresa
Buprenorphine and methadone 
starting methadone for RLS 
