Methadone Drug Addiction .com

I want to hear about true stories from ex abusers and family members. how do you deal with it and make the person realize he/she has a problem. HELP!!

try googling it.

2006-07-09 13:11:30 by kelley

Art fennell Reports takes a closer look at the adictiveness of Methadone and talks to a woman who lost her loved one to the drug.

what are the chances of overdose while taking these medicationsand might this result in death?

The main danger is death. Methadone is a very powerful drug, it is used to curve cravings of heroin so go figure. Xanax (Alprazolam) is also a very powerful sedative, when the two are combined the depress the central nervous system very quickly, as you probably have already found out.
Also they can cause your breathing to slow down or even stop. The way overdose works is that you fall asleep then your breathing stops.
Both Methadone and Xanax are great drugs separately, just don't mix them. It doesn't take much to kill you either, as little as 25mg of Methadone and 2-4mg of xanax combined have been known to cause death. Google Xanax+Methadone+Death and you will get tons of examples.
And as far as your Doctor that prescribed both of them together, I'd find a new Dr. who knows his meds and has your best interest in mind.
Any street level user can tell you that those are two drugs you never want to mix unless you just don't care what happens.

2006-10-25 04:29:27 by Soldier82nd

He is an ex heroin addit. I am concerned because he has a liver disease.

Pharmacology
Methadone has a slow metabolism and very high lipid solubility, making it longer lasting than morphine-based drugs. Methadone has a typical half-life of 24-48 hours, permitting the administration only once a day in heroin detoxification and maintenance programs. The most common mode of delivery at a methadone clinic is in an oral solution. Methadone is almost as effective when administered orally as by injection. As with heroin, tolerance and dependence usually develop with repeated doses. Tolerance to the different physiological effects of methadone varies. Tolerance to analgesia usually occurs during the first few weeks of use; whereas with respiratory depression, sedation, and nausea it is seen within approximately 5-7 days. There is no tolerance formed to constipation produced by methadone or the other opioids.

Current research shows methadone has a unique affinity for the NMDA (N-methyl-D-aspartic acid) brain receptor. Some researchers propose that NMDA may regulate psychic dependence and tolerance by exhibiting opioid antagonist-like activity. Withdrawal symptoms are generally less acutely severe than those of morphine and heroin at equivalent doses, but are significantly more prolonged.

[edit]
Clinical use
[edit]
Opiate addiction
Methadone has traditionally been provided to the addiction population in a highly regulated methadone clinic, generally associated with an outpatient department of a hospital. Clinics such as these stem from programs set up during the Nixon administration to combat heroin use, first in Washington, D.C., then nationwide. In addition to obtaining a daily methadone dose, some who go to this type of clinic for addiction treatment may attend some type of psychological counseling for their addiction. Some are required to attend drug addiction programs but many are not.

Methadone is considered to be generally effective in management of heroin addiction and reduction of HIV rates from needle sharing. There is no evidence that methadone use decreases dangerous sexual behavior, crime, or psychiatric illness nor does it improve family stability or likelihood of employment. At proper dosing, methadone usually reduces the appetite for and need to take heroin. However, some heroin addicts report more difficulty in quitting methadone than heroin. While there is much debate over the treatment schedule and duration required, treatment at a methadone maintenance clinic is intended to be for an indefinite duration. Many factors determine the treatment dose schedule, and some follow the philosophy that methadone maintenance treatment is not curative for heroin addiction.

[edit]
Chronic pain
In recent years, methadone has gained popularity among physicians for the treatment of other medical problems, such as chronic pain. The increased usage comes as doctors search for an opioid drug that can be dosed less frequently than short-acting drugs like morphine or hydrocodone. Methadone, with its long half-life (and thus long duration of effect) and good oral bioavailability, is a common second-choice drug for pain that doesn't respond to weaker agonists.

Methadone prescribed for chronic pain is also tied to an increasing number of drug overdose deaths in the United States, more than any other prescription narcotic painkiller.

According to the National Center for Health Statistics, as well as a 2006 series in the Charleston (WV) Gazette[5], medical examiners listed methadone as contributing to 2,992 deaths in 2003, up from 790 in 1999. Approximately 82% of those deaths were listed as accidental- and most deaths involved combinations of methadone with other drugs (especially benzodiazepines).

Data confirms a correlation between increased methadone distribution through pharmacy channels and the rise in methadone associated mortality. This supports the hypothesis that the growing use of oral methadone, prescribed and dispensed for the outpatient management of chronic pain (vs. opioid addiction treatment), explains the dramatic increases in methadone consumption and the growing availability of the drug for diversion to abuse.

More information on methadone associated mortality can be found at Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA - U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services).

[edit]
Efficacy
Efficacy of Methadone, whether for Heroin addiction, or chronic pain has long been debated. A Cochrane review (neutral organization that examines medical treatments) from 2004 noted, "Methadone is an effective maintenance therapy intervention for the treatment of heroin dependence as it retains patients in treatment and decreases heroin use better than treatments that do not utilise opioid replacement therapy. It does not show statistically significant superior effect on criminal activity." In other words, opiate dependent patients stayed in methadone programs, but improvement in criminal activity was no greater than that seen in patients treated without methadone.

Worldwide, there has been an explosion of deaths related to methadone. Germany noted that one-half of its deaths due to drugs were caused in whole or in part by methadone. In 1996, more than twice as many people died from methadone than died from heroin in England. This trend seems to be worsening. It should be noted that most overdose deaths involving methadone were caused by concurrent use of benzodiazepines or other tranquilizer drugs.[citation needed]

A British Alcoholics-Anonymous-like group, Recovery, notes, "It is our experience as ex-drug addicts and addiction counsellors that methadone is as dangerous and as harmful as heroin. It offers little or no incentive for an addict to stop taking drugs."

Methadone has almost no scientific study supporting its use for chronic pain. It does not have superior pain relieving effects vs. other opiates and is much more dangerous. Therefore, many reputable physicians discourage methadone use for any reason.

[edit]
Abuse
Most methadone abuse is perpetrated by friends and family members of people who receive the drug on a prescription basis for medical conditions.

Although not common, methadone is encountered on the illicit drug market and has been associated with a number of overdose deaths. "Street Meth" demand comes primarily from opioid addicts unable to get into a legal methadone program, or addicts who have been removed from a methadone program due to some infraction. Methadone is not a common drug of choice because, generally speaking, addicts seeking a high strongly prefer shorter-acting opioids. Studies have shown that the vast majority of methadone diverted to the illicit market comes from pain management prescriptions or theft from factories/shippers and not from maintenance patients.

[edit]
Similar drugs
Closely related to methadone, the synthetic compound levo-alphacetylmethadol or LAAM (ORLAAM) has an even longer duration of action (from 48 to 72 hours), permitting a reduction in frequency of use. In 1994 it was approved as a treatment of narcotic addiction. Like methadone, LAAM is in Schedule II of the United States Controlled Substances Act. LAAM has since been removed from the US and European markets due to reports of rare cardiac side effects.

Buprenorphine has also been used in the treatment of narcotic addiction. In the UK and many other countries, however, not only buprenorphine and methadone but also diamorphine (heroin) and other opioids may be used for outpatient treatment of opiate addiction, and treatment is generally provided in much less heavily regulated environments than in the United States. A study from Austria indicated that oral morphine provides better results than oral methadone, and studies of heroin maintenance have indicated that a low background dose of methadone combined with heroin maintenance may significantly improve outcomes for less-responsive patients.

Another close relative of methadone is dextropropoxyphene, first marketed in 1957 under the trade name of Darvon. Oral analgesic potency is one-half to one-third that of codeine, with 65 mg approximately equivalent to about 600 mg of aspirin. Dextropropoxyphene is prescribed for relief of mild to moderate pain. Bulk dextropropoxyphene is in Schedule II of the United States Controlled Substances Act, while preparations containing it are in Schedule IV. More than 100 tons of dextropropoxyphene are produced in the United States annually, and more than 25 million prescriptions are written for the products. This narcotic is associated with a number of toxic side effects and is among the top 10 drugs reported by medical examiners in recreational drug use deaths.

2006-09-25 13:14:37 by Linda C

Im just looking for a little high. Please don't lecture me on the dangers, I am in no way a chronic recreational user of prescription pills. I have 2 10mg pills will this work.

no your sick...lol ...you do whatever

2008-10-14 15:09:03 by James5

I been drinking beer and gin and took a half 10mg pill of methadone.
Should I be worried??

Depends how much you are drinking. But in general it's not safe because you are pummeling your liver.

2010-08-25 19:43:40 by sweetkitty