Author: SouthJaxBeach

Posted: Wed Feb 13, 2013 3:27 pm

Wow I can’t imagine what you and your step son are going through. The physical w/ds stopping 16mg of suboxone a day cold turkey will be extremely rough for 2-3 weeks, followed by slow improvement the following months. The success rate stopping subs cold turkey from that dose are probably less than 1% AND that’s the just the suboxone. Xanax withdrawal is a whole different animal(9pills a day could be as much as 18mg/day which can kill someone who stops cold turkey). I’m not surprised the combination of withdrawls are making him seem “psychotic�…I’m no doctor but he’s in a real tough spot.

In my opinion:
1)Yes, I believe it is possible to stop both drugs cold turkey, but it would extremely difficult(nearly impossible) to stop from a combination of such high doses.
2)I don’t know. I’m sure it depends on the dose he was taking and length of use. Ask a doctor. Careful, this is probably his greatest immediate danger.
3)I doubt it was much of a set back and was probably needed at the time due to risk of seizure. 12days are not wasted there will be more discomfort to come.
4)That probably depends on the treatment plan, but I believe many people choose to step down one at a time.
5)I would think a detox center would medically supervise him the first few days. My guess is his symptoms will require additional probably milder benzo’s and opiates for a few weeks while he gets his tolerance down.

Good Luck – Post back if you can.