[kevgnulldev]

Soboxone targets opioid receptors differently than heroin and, while it is technically a "replacement therapy" it is almost impossible to overdose on and more difficult to use on a continual basis for recreational purposes (the "positive" effects of the drug decay rapidly with continual use. To answer the question, one does experience withdrawal effects if they use Buprenorphine for a long enough time, however some professionals in the Recovery Industry (tm) use it to do a "fast taper" which is a more aggressive treatment over a short period of time in which the patient only takes Buprenorphine for a week or so to reduce the pain of heroin withdrawal (but not completely eliminate it) and then taper the dose of suboxone quickly before the patient has time to grow dependent. Yesterday's discussion of Wikipedia's accuracy notwithstanding, the link below actually does give some useful jumping off points.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buprenorphine

In short, users can get "strung out" on suboxone but if used in certain ways (I.e not for the long term "maintenance" that the pharma companies make their money on, but as a short therapy to quiet some of the discomfort experienced during opiate withdrawal, it can be effective and safe and not lead to long term use.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3150159/

[refurb]

Suboxone still works through the same receptors as morphine or heroin (see the wiki link).

One important difference is that it's a partial agonist at the mu receptors rather than a full agonist. That makes the effects someone self limiting.

[kevgnulldev]

I didn't say that it targets different receptors. I said it targets them (i.e. the same receptors) differently. I failed to go into the details of how it targets them differently (wasn't sure if that LOD was called for, or in good taste, considering that this is not a site about pharmacology or neurochemistry). I did see the wiki link... (I wouldn't have posted it if I hadn't.) Thank you for clarifying though! (BTW, I think that you meant somewhat not someone in your final sentence.)

[nitrogen]

(wasn't sure if that LOD was called for, or in good taste, considering that this is not a site about pharmacology or neurochemistry).

In my experience, detailed knowledge is always welcome on Hacker News, especially if it comes from another highly technical field outside software.

[kevgnulldev]

Totally, my error for not adding value with some additional information in my last comment. Thank you. :)

1) some introductory material on receptor theory:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Receptor_theory

Yes, I know Wikipedia, a more comprehensive intro to basic neuro is "Principles of Neural Science, 5th Ed" (http://www.mhprofessional.com/product.php?isbn=0071390111)... It's large book but the de facto standard.

2) a reference to some basic pharmacology with respect to opioid receptors that includes a summary discussion on receptor interactions (i.e. full agonists/antagonists/partial agonists):

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK64236/

3) some explanation per the specifics of the mu receptor (click on this only if you are truly thirsting for knowledge on the mu receptor):

http://www.iuphar-db.org/DATABASE/ObjectDisplayForward?objec...

Have a nice night!