Dr. Ditzell went through the training and obtained his license to prescribe and monitor Buprenorphine. He has extensive experience working with patients to overcome their substance abuse issues and prescribes Buprenorphine when it is clinically relevant to do so, having seen success with many of his patients utilizing this treatment modality.

How Buprenorphine Works

Buprenorphine has unique pharmacological properties that help:

• Lower the potential for misuse
• Diminish the effects of physical dependency to opioids, such as withdrawal symptoms and cravings
• Increase safety in cases of overdose
• Buprenorphine is an opioid partial agonist. This means that, like opioids, it produces effects such as euphoria or respiratory depression. With buprenorphine, however, these effects are weaker than those of full drugs such as heroin and methadone.

Buprenorphine’s opioid effects increase with each dose until at moderate doses they level off, even with further dose increases. This “ceiling effect” lowers the risk of misuse, dependency, and side effects. Also, because of buprenorphine’s long-acting agent, many patients may not have to take it every day.