Methadone Drug Addiction .com

My fiance is addicted to pain pills. We have talked about getting her some help from a methadone clinic. I have researched methadone, and from what I am seeing, some people use methadone for pain relief, and some people have even gotten addicted to it. How is this helping a person who is trying to get off pain pills, if their taking something that they could also get addicted to?

My father was put on methodone in an effort to "wean" him off of oxycontin. He got off the oxcyontin but became horribly addicted to the methodone. The next step was to wean him off of the methodone. The substitute they gave him for pain relief did not work, withdrawl from the methodone made him severly depressed. He committed suicide. Please don't let her take methodone.

2007-11-05 19:49:16 by mr.margarita

NYTimes.com - Methadone, long known for treating heroin addiction, is now commonly prescribed for pain. But the drug can be deadly.

I had shingles in 2003 and it caused nerve damage (phn). I take about four or five 5mg doses of methadone a week to control the intense pain in the trigeminal nerve in my face. I am afraid of becoming addicted to this drug. Loritab does me no good at all. Has anyone had this experience. I have a physician that will prescribe methadone but I would really like to get away from it and him. My family physician can write lesser painkillers but I absolutely don't know which way to go. Are pain management doctors usually effective?

the key to pain meds, like methadone, is that if you have pain, and use the medication for that purpose, you do not become addicted. Addiction occurs when you don't need the med for pain and you only use it to get high, then you become dependant on the stuff. If the methadone works for you, then be grateful, because many meds will not work on neuralgia like yours.

2007-03-21 10:50:17 by Richard S

Price: $9.95 $9.95

My son has herniated and bulged disks due to automobile accident. He became addicted to narcotic medication that was given to control his pain. Went through detox but doctor wants him to go to methadone clinic to manage his pain. He completed detox 3 weeks ago and has had no narcotic pain pills since, but today started on the methadone program. I am having a hard time understanding this, can anyone give me insight from personal experience?

I took methadone for pain in my hand (I had a flesh eating bacteria in my hand and lost one finger.) They had been giving me large doses of pain meds in the hospital, and I slowly built up a tolerance to them. Methadone is an excellent pain releiver, but it is something to respect also. It is potent and if he already has an addictive personality he should be aware that someone will monitor how much he is taking. If he is going through a clinic, they will only give him what he needs for a set period, to prevent him from abusing it. Remind him not to take it with any other narcotic he may have or sleeping pills and absolutely no alcohol. Evidently he is being given the methadone through a program, because of his previous addiction to the other narcotic meds, and this is a very good idea. The program should only give him small doses and he will not be able to get more than he should be taking. That is probably why his doctor decided to go this route. The methadone program will treat his pain, it is not being used to detox him from the previous narcotics. He needs to also be aware that if he goes to any hospital, he absolutely must tell the doctors and staff that he is on methadone, so they do not give him anything to interfer with his treatment. Good Luck and I hope this helped.

2008-01-04 14:49:37 by Mom

Price: $9.95 $9.95

I have been taking methadone for IP (Intractible Pain) for a while and wanted to know if the negative side effects I am experiencing, along with the fact that it is not working properly is normal- PLEASE LET ME KNOW

here is what I found:
Side effects associated with methadone are similar to those incurred with other mu-opioid agonists, including pruritus, nausea, constipation, confusion, sedation, and respiratory depression. Excess sweating (diaphoresis) and flushing are common with oral methadone dosing. Caution should be taken with initiation of therapy and dosage increases because severe toxicities may not become apparent for two to five days. In a study of patients converted to methadone therapy in an outpatient setting, 20 of 29 participants experienced some degree of toxicity, most frequently mild drowsiness, during initial titration.29 Side effects such as sedation and respiratory depression are increased when methadone is combined with alcohol or other drugs. An Australian study30 found benzodiazepines present in 74 percent of deaths related to methadone and urged particular caution when methadone was prescribed with benzodiazepines.

As far as effectiveness, Unlike morphine, it usually is not necessary to adjust the dosage of methadone in patients with renal insufficiency. The duration of analgesia is approximately three to six hours when methadone therapy is initiated, and this duration typically extends to eight to 12 hours with repeated dosing. In a study of cancer patients, an average of 2.4 doses per day was required to maintain adequate pain control.

Hope this helps. http://www.aafp.org/afp/20050401/1353.ht ml

2008-05-08 03:47:57 by Kevin S

I have heard several people say that they really need methadone for pain, because their doctors would not give them strong enough medicine for pain, so they had to "fake" addiction in order to get the medicine at the methadone clinics. Some say that they are still dependent, but they still need it for pain also.
I know all about methadone, so I am not really asking about it or comments on it. I know the reason people go to the clinics is to get off the more dangerous street drugs. I know some people were going to doctors and the doctors had them on opiate medication for a while, and then took them off, which I didn't really understand why they put them on it to begin with, if they are just going to take them off. So they still need pain medicine and the only way to get it would be to go to the methadone clinic if they cannot find another doctor to keep them on it. So I have heard several say that although they were dependent, they still need the methadone for pain. So I was hoping maybe the ones that are in this situation would tell me. I know that methadone does not make a person high like the street drugs.
I was really wondering since I had heard some say that, and hoped maybe I would get answers from the methadone clients, but it's okay if you want to give your opinions, as long as you know enough about it, and not just what someone tells you, because I have heard all kinds of different stories. I know that some doctors where I live, do not like to prescribe opiate pain medicine, and I can understand why, if the pain is not real bad, and isn't an on-going condition. But what I am asking is do you, or do you know someone to whom the doctor was prescribing opiates for an on-going severe condition, and then cut them off for fear of dependency (which seems like it would be too late anyway after a month or so) and that person went to a methadone clinic and just said that they were dependent , which was probably true, but the main reason was that they needed something to ease the severe pain?

Yes, I myself am doing that. I went to a pain clinic for a while but wasnt getting any relief at all. I was taking about 10 hydros a day and wearing a duragesic patch. I now take one dose of methadone a day and have no pain. Methadone is great because it stores in the liver and uses it later. It helps me alot.

2007-01-21 09:17:59 by Gary M