Paraphernalia - Bupe, half-life, buildup, tapering

[Laudaphun]

This is SWIM's very first result at an attempt to answer a question that has been troubling her for quite a bit of time. Now consider that this is merely a first round batch of data, and SWIM needs to check her algorithm over and over again to make sure it is producing accurate results.

buprenorphine has a half-life of 37 hours on average, but typically people are dosed every 24 hours. That would seem like a very high level of build up would occur in people who are maintained on this drug for long periods of time. SWIM awhile ago began writing a computer program to simulate the relative amount of buprenorphine in a person's system given different doses, dosing schedules, periods of time, etc... Well the spring semester began and SWIM no longer had time to continue work on it. Not that it's overly complex, SWIM just has no free time. But SWIM is on spring break now so figured she'd take a minute and look at one of her many unfinished programs. Well, SWIM didn't finish it, but added enough functionality to do some first run simulations of data. If what the program is showing SWIM is accurate, then SWIM just learned a major leason in pharmacology. The information SWIM is getting could probably be proved or disproved with some simple math. However SWIM's math done manually is showing the same results.

Anyways, SWIM assumed that with a 37 hour half-life and 24 hour dosing, that buildup of bupe in a person's system would eventually become way high. SWIM's first round test shows that blood levels of bupe after 10 days of 24 hour dosing are only only a microgram or two from reaching their peak which would occur on the 11th day. After the 11th day, with 24 hour dosing of the same dose each day would no longer yield higher levels of bupe in the system... Or the increases are so small that they are negligible. Assuming there is no error in SWIM's algorithm, to determine if in fact a peak blood level of bupe would be reached in basically 10 days, as after 11 days the slope of the equation becomes 0 or very close to it. SWIM needs to use more decimal places in his calculations for further exploration.

So basically a person should have equal amounts of bupe in their system regardless of whether they've taken the same dose each day for 10-11 days or 360 days... Even after 3 years, the blood levels remain the same.

SWIM knows that there are 100 different variables that could possibly make everything she is basing her work on totally wrong. If my assumptions based on the data I got are totally wrong, please let me know so that I don't waste anymore time trying to fine tune things. My mathematics are sound, as is my logic, however my understanding of the metabolism bupe is not.

A fact pulled from the suboxone/subutex manufacturers insert says that 30% bupe is excreted via urine and 69% is excreted via intestines 11 days after the a dose. The other 1% can be accounted for by 2 unidentified buprenorphine metabolites. So this means that according to Reckitt Benckiser Pharm, a single dose of bupe will be completely elminated from teh body in 11 days.

If no one understands what I'm rambling on about then just let this thread die and I will bring it back to life once I have done further testing come to some more concrete conclusions and am able to present some more user friendly data... and more confidently I might add. I have purposely omitted my raw data from the various simulations that I've run in case they are incorrect.