most people, including physicians, do not comprehend the strength and
effects of
buprenorphine. “Everything changes in the body when you’re on opiates long-term—the way the body regulates pain, the way it regulates hormone production, sleep, emotions, everything,” he said. And buprenorphine, he stresses, is an opiate. Its effects are not just physical: as a psychiatrist, Scanlan has noticed, for example, that at long-term doses of just 2mg, Suboxone can block almost all of a person’s emotions.