sheesh, i was in a research group before buprenorphine was found to be efficacious. i wish that i had not fouled up and got myself into more trouble. the only problem with buprenorphine is that because you do not feel any physical withdrawal symptoms from the opiates (my taste was for heroin so i'm not sure if it is different coming off of vicodin for percs) it gives you a downtime. as if you are just moderating your opiate use. the research group gave all of us 7 day take homes, that means 1 pill to dissolve under your tongue in the morning and another to dissolve in the late afternoon. 14. so anyway, i would take it all through the week and then not take anything on say friday night and then saturday and sunday i'd allow myself to get high. but if you continue to take opiates longer than the buprenorphine you might find yourself getting sick when you try to go back to it. like ,"take me tto the ER something is very wrong with me!" kind of sick. i think it's the opiate blockers that causes this. VERY SCARY! so if you plan on taking the buprenorphine i suggest you really commit yourself to the cause. assist your kick with a solid foundation of therapy or meetings or really good friends that can call you out on your Best if kept off the board just in case you try to convince yourself that one tiny relapse is all right. i wish that i hadn't screwed up with that. because i had too many dirty urines they had to kick me off and i was left to kick without something to cushion the fall. but if i were to pick a good drug to help with opiate withdrawal buprenorhine would get two big thumbs up! it's better than taking another weaker opiate because then you will just be holding off the inevitable. you might as well be completely opiate free...2 cents for you...