Safer drug to treat opiate addiction available in Sask.

Saskatchewan doctors now have safer tool to treat opioid addiction.

Suboxone was added to the provincial drug formulary on Jan. 1, making it widely available for Saskatchewan addiction patients.

“We can now tailor the approach to the individual patient much better than we could before,” addictions specialist Dr. Peter Butt said.

The drug will hopefully reduce opiate addiction rates and methadone-related deaths in Saskatchewan, he said.

Suboxone is a combination of buprenorphine and naloxone, making it a safer alternative to methadone, with fewer side effects such as respiratory depression, Butt said. Buprenorphine also provides a ceiling effect to the high, he added.

“You can take it up to a certain dose, and then there’s no point in going any higher.”

Patients with a more severe and long-standing period of addiction may need methadone, but many others should respond well to suboxone, he said.

Suboxone also carries less stigma than methadone, he noted.

“Methadone comes laden with the stigma of drug use, and sometimes people on methadone who are in recovery and doing very well are not well-treated when they enter the health care system. The assumption is they’re actively using rather than in treatment and recovery,” he said.

In Saskatoon, 22 people died of fentanyl overdose between 2013 and 2015, according to the Office of the Chief Coroner. Provincewide, 47 deaths between 2013 and 2016 were confirmed to be overdoses involving fentanyl.

The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Saskatchewan requires doctors to have education in treating addiction and spend a day with a methadone prescriber to learn how to screen and manage patients, Butt said.