Opioids have been used for pleasure and for treating pain for almost 6 millennia.^1,2 Around 3400 BC, the Sumerians, in what is now the Middle East, referred to the opium poppy as Hul Gil or the "joy plant."²

In 1300 BC, opioid use in Egypt spread to Greece and other parts of Europe.² In ancient Greece, Homer wrote in The Odyssey that a daughter of Zeus served a grieving Odysseus a drink containing opium. In 460 BC, Hippocrates, the great Greek physician, used opium to treat everything from headaches and coughing to asthma and melancholy.¹

Opium use disappeared from record in Europe for 200 years during the Holy Inquisition. The drug reappeared in 1527 when it was reintroduced for its medicinal properties by Paracelsus.²

Opioid abuse became prevalent during the second half of the 19th century, after the invention of the hypodermic syringe. Injecting opium allowed for a more rapid, potent effect. During the American Civil War, morphine was used to treat injuries, and opioid dependence became so common among the armed forces that it was referred to as the "soldiers' disease."¹

In 1898, the Bayer Company began marketing a cough suppressant featuring a new ingredient called "heroin."²

In part because it did not produce many of the side effects common to morphine, heroin was widely assumed to be nonaddictive—so much so that in the early 1900s, free samples of heroin were available by mail to recovering morphine addicts as a "step-down" cure.²

By 1914, however, heroin's addictive properties were no longer in doubt. That year, the US government tried to curb heroin use by imposing a hefty tax on heroin. Then, in 1924, the government banned the nonmedical use of heroin, and in 1970 banned the medical use of heroin, as well.^1-3

Despite the many changes in medicine over the past 6000 years, one thing that has not changed is that opioids are still regarded as highly effective, well-tolerated analgesics. Ongoing demand for pain relievers has led to the development of stronger, longer-acting medications, most of which are opioid based.

As the potency of opioid pain relievers has increased, so has patients' risk of becoming physically or psychologically dependent on them—even when the medications are taken as directed.

In 2001, opioid dependence accounted for 18% of all substance abuse treatment admissions, exceeding cocaine admissions for the 5th consecutive year.⁴ At present, the number of untreated opioid-dependent patients in the United States is believed to be at least 1.2 million.⁵

Recognition of the urgent public health need for opioid-dependence treatment alternatives was one of the reasons SUBOXONE was developed in cooperation with the National Institute of Drug Abuse.

In 2000, Congress approved the Drug Addiction Treatment Act (DATA 2000), giving physicians the right to use approved opioids to treat opioid dependence in their offices.⁶ Prior to DATA 2000, this was illegal to do outside a hospital or clinic.

In October 2002, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved buprenorphine for use in treating opioid dependence.⁷ France approved buprenorphine for the treatment of opioid dependence in 1996, and Australia followed in 2001.^8,9

Now approved in more than 30 countries, buprenorphine is marketed in the United States under the brand names SUBOXONE and SUBUTEX® (buprenorphine HCl sublingual tablets).