Suboxone is a daily under-the-tongue tablet or film that combines buprenorphine with naloxone. Buprenorphine has several important features that make it an effective treatment for opioid use disorder.

-  It is a partial opioid agonist, which means it activates the same receptors in the brain as opioids, but only partly. This helps reduce cravings and withdrawal symptoms.  

-  It has high receptor affinity meaning that suboxone binds more tightly to the opioid receptor than most other opioids.  This makes it harder for other drugs to have any effect if someone relapses while taking Suboxone.

-  It has a long half-life, so it takes a long time for the Suboxone or buprenorphine to wear off.  Because of this, patients on Suboxone do not start to feel withdrawals for a long time, so they are not always thinking about taking more to avoid withdrawals they way they probably were while using their drug of choice.

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As shown in the picture below, Suboxone works by interrupting the cycle of addiction at the point where drug effects are going down, setting off a terrible surge of cravings.  By blocking this step, Suboxone (buprenorphine) helps bring the system back into equilibrium, allowing patients to feel more normal.

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