With tens of thousands of people dying each year in the United States from opioid (painkiller) addiction, we need to optimize every resource to help extricate people from this trap of brain chemistry. Buprenorphine has provided an additional avenue out of the trap by either supporting a comfortable stepdown to abstinence over weeks, or continued drug maintenance; both avoiding the painful and destabilizing withdrawal. With no research supporting endless maintenance, our focus today is on the comfortable stepdown process and the phenomenon known as ‘dysphoric letdown’ that can challenge this
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