Double-dosed patients would then receive their next dose on Monday. Buprenorphine's unique effects and pharmacology make it an attractive and clinically helpful treatment option. For example, buprenorphine produces less euphoria than morphine and heroin. When compared with other opiates, it also causes a significantly lower degree of sedation and respiratory depression, the slowing down of breathing that makes heroin overdoses so dangerous. These limited side effects can be attributed to the fact that buprenorphine is a partial mu agonist, explains Dr. Eric Strain, a researcher in the Behavioral Pharmacology Research Unit at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore.
Agonists are chemicals that bind to and stimulate opiate receptors.
Antagonists block the effects of opiates by binding to receptors without stimulating them. Because buprenorphine is a partial mu agonist, it also readily binds to mu opiate receptors. However, buprenorphine activates these receptors to a lesser degree than full mu receptor agonists such as morphine and heroin, says Dr. Strain. Buprenorphine also is released slowly from the mu receptor, producing a long-lasting effect. Therefore, it may be possible to give buprenorphine to patients every other day, rather than in the daily doses that methadone patients must receive.