The nation is shocked at the death of the famed actor, Philip Seymour Hoffman. His passing is a blow to the acting community in Hollywood, and likely only deepening the stigma of addiction in this country. Such a versatile actor and intelligent man who was secretly battling an ongoing addiction. Hoffman's past substance abuse was no secret, though he upheld that he had been sober around 20 years. Until he checked into a ten day rehab in 2012, supposedly clean ever since.
Hoffman was allegedly found with dozens of bags of heroin, as well as several prescription medications. The meds include : buprenorphine, clonidine, a benzodiazepine, and an amphetamine. It is not clear what, if any, of these drugs were legally prescribed to Hoffman. Clonidine is often used by individuals during withdrawals to help lower blood pressure, helping reduce symptoms. Buprenorphine is used as a replacement for opiates, in treatment for opiate dependency or addiction.
The unfortunate aspect of this tragedy is the fact that it could possibly have been attributed to Hoffman's use of Buprenorphine. Buprenorphine is a partial opioid agonist used in treatment for opiate dependent individuals. Opiates or opioids bind to opioid receptors in the brain and body when an opiate or opioid is administered. Different opiates/opioids have varying degrees of receptor affinity, essentially - how strongly they bind to said receptor. Buprenorphine has a very high affinity to opioid receptors in the body, higher than heroin. Buprenorphine also has a very very long half life, meaning it stays on these receptors for days.
What this means is that if buprenorphine has been administered recently, it is likely taking up a majority of the opioid receptors in the body. Then, if an individual decides to administer heroin or another opiate into the body, there will be a small amount of receptors to bind to (compared to not having recently administered buprenorphine). This means using much much more of the heroin or opiate to achieve any type of high. Unfortunately, this can lead to overdosing very easily.
It is possible that Hoffman had been maintaing on buprenorphine and decided to use heroin, bought a large amount knowing that he would need to use larger doses to achieve any high.
This is a frightening reality associated with buprenorphine treatment, and surely has led to deaths in the past. Mixing benzos with any opiate only compounds the probability of an overdose.
R.I.P. Philip Seymour Hoffman
Thanks for reading and take care
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