Can you please help me to understand how buprenorphine works with your bodies receptors for pain control, not opiate addiction?

Buprenorphine: Buprenorphine, as marketed as butrans, is a potent opiod analgesic medication with the analgesic effect coming from partial agonist activity at mu opioid receptors. It is also an antagonist at kappa opioid receoptors, an agonist at delta receptors, and a partial agonist at orl-1 (nociceptin) receptors. Its binding affinity to the mu recetors is very high, and overdose cannot be easily reversed.

It does both: Buprenorphine works on opiate receptors, it works differently than standard opiates such as morphine, oxycodone, heroin etc. This is what makes it helpful for addiction, plus its very long half-life. But it is also indicated for chronic pain in a patch form called butrans. It is an opiate, but it only partial stimulates opiate receptors.Morphine opens the door wide open, Buprenorphine only half.

Same mechanism: All opiates hit the same site. The difference is whether the cell's response is turned on-pain control- or blocked so that it cannot be turned on. Buprenorphine is called a mixed agonist-antagonist, meaning it only partially works. It basically sets its own cap for how much it acts, and can even partially reverse effects of other opioids, like heroin. Be careful, as it is difficult to reverse.