Pregnant. On Subutex. Is It Safe To Be On Subutex Till Delivery?

Thank you for your query. Subutex contains buprenorphine, an opioid partial agonist given to manage opioid withdrawl symptoms and its maintainance. There is limited data related to safety of subutex in pregnancy at the moment. the manufacturers of the product do not recommend using it in pregnancy. Methadone, (a substitute of subutex) is considered safer during pregnancy. However, if a patient is already stable on subutex, then whether to continue it has to be decided jointly by the therapist and the patient. It depends upon the individual patient, her level of drug use before subutex, her physical symptoms of withdrawal and her physical/ health status. If a person gives written consent, subutex can be continued. However, the final decision has to be taken by an experiences addiction specialist after thorough evaluation of the particular patients status. i would request you to consult an experienced deaddiction specialist in this regard urgently for proper management of the same. please remember, delay in advice or improper management may have harmful effects on the baby. Hope I ve been able to satisfy your query. If you have any further clarifications, please don t hesitate to ask me. Best of luck. Dr. Sourav.