Methadone is often used as a method of weening a person off of harmful opioids such as heroin and painkillers. What many methadone users do not realize is the risks of their newfound prescribed drug. Not only is methadone used to help addicts off of opioids, it is also used as a prescription for pain. In the last decade, methadone prescriptions have risen by 700 percent. (Drug Enforcement Administration)

The FDA recommends starting methadone at a dose of 30mg a day due to the severe risks beginning methadone consumption. I have seen this dose rise to as much as 160mg a day in the course of 4 weeks. The idea is to raise the dose to curb any craving for the drug being replaced, however, it could be questioned that methadone clinics benefit from patient's prolonged and increased usage of methadone due to the money that they collect for the amount of time the drug is prescribed. This drug is also legally available in jails and prisons, making it one of the only highly addictive substances able to be sold in our corrections institutions.

This petition attempts to raise your awareness of the extreme risks of methadone addiction and treatment. These risks range from overdosing, maintaining, and detoxing from methadone. Please sign this petition asking for education about the risks of this treatment method. Education for our doctors. Education for the public. And most importantly – education for anyone considering using methadone. This drug certainly is not one to be handed out like ibuprofen.

Availability:

Have a little trouble getting off that painkiller you were prescribed for your broken arm last month? No problem. Just go to the methadone clinic and they’ll take care of you – you’ll be off those painkillers in no time. The trouble is, you probably had no intention of getting hooked on a much bigger demon. Worse yet, you may not have even had much of a choice in the matter. A doctor could simply prescribe you methadone for that broken arm of yours.  

What are methadone’s adverse reactions?

Deaths occur more frequently at the beginning of treatment in methadone programs; they are usually a cause of excessive doses (i.e. erroneously estimated tolerance) and they are affected by concomitant diseases (hepatitis, pneumonia). Methadone generally entails the entire spectrum of opioid side effects, including the development of tolerance and physical and psychological dependence. Respiratory depressions are dangerous. The released histamines can cause hypotension or bronchospasms. Other symptoms are: constipation, nausea or vomiting, sedation, vertigo, edema.

Additionally, methadone has been associated with life-threatening cardiac arrhythmias. The risk of these arrhythmias increases with frequent high dosages of methadone and the intake of medications which may affect the patient’s level of potassium and magnesium (such as “water pills”). Some anti-depressant and anti-hypertension medications can also cause irregularity of heart rhythm in patients taking methadone. Dr. Mark Borigini

What are the symptoms of methadone overdose?

Body as a whole
muscle spasticity
Respiratory
difficulty breathing
slow, shallow and labored breathing
stopped breathing (sometimes fatal within 2-4 hours)
Eyes, ears, nose and throat
pinpoint pupils
bluish skin
bluish fingernails and lips
Gastrointestinal
spasms of the stomach and/or intestinal tract
constipation
Heart and blood vessels
weak pulse
low blood pressure
Nervous system
drowsiness
disorientation
coma

Methadone overdoses are associated with severe respiratory depression, decreases in heart rate and blood pressure, coma, and death. The Drug Abuse Warning Network reports that methadone was involved in 10,725 emergency department visits in 2001--a 37 percent increase from the previous year. National Drug Intelligence Center

What is methadone dependency?

As an opiate, regular use of methadone causes physical dependency – if you’ve been using it regularly (prescribed or not) once you stop you will experience a withdrawal. The physical changes due to the drug are similar to other opiates (like heroin); suppressed cough reflex, contracted pupils, drowsiness and constipation. Some methadone users feel sick when they first use the drug. If you are a woman using methadone you may not have regular periods – but you are still able to conceive. Methadone is a long-acting opioid; it has an effect for up to 36 hours (if you are using methadone you will not withdraw for this period) and can remain in your body for several days

Unfortunately, theories do not always display the outcome.  One Narconon graduate reveals her experience of using methadone as a substitute for her synthetic opiate addiction.

“I got on methadone to get off heroin and OxyContin which was a huge mistake,” explains Heather, a former methadone addict and recent graduate of the Narconon program. “I stopped taking heroin but developed a dependency towards the methadone.  For me, methadone was even more addictive than the OxyContin or Heroin. ”

For more than 35 years methadone has been used to treat opioid addiction, such as an addiction to heroin or OxyContin.  More recently, concern has been raised that methadone can be just as devastating of an addiction as the drugs it is intended to replace.

“I was on methadone for 9 years and it totally destroyed my body,” said Heather, “As a result to the prolonged us of methadone, I developed an under-active thyroid, requiring me to take medication for the rest of my life.  I also developed a severe calcium and magnesium deficiency from the methadone, causing me to have body cramps almost a year and a half later. The withdrawals from methadone are far worse than those from heroin. By Drs Marcel Buster & Giel van Brussel, MD

 Detoxing Risks:

Methadone withdrawal symptoms include but are not limited to rapid heartbeat,

fatigue, nausea, vomiting, paranoia, mood swings, panic, hallucinations, insomnia or sleeping too much, body trembling, sneezing, runny nose, runny eyes, fever, body aches, abdominal cramps, dilated pupils and sweating. Methadone withdrawal symptoms hit everyone differently. Some people will have them more severely than others. The most serious withdrawal symptom is going into a seizure, which needs emergency treatment.

·  Time Frame ·  Withdrawal symptoms can start as little as a few hours after the last dose or as late as three days. The length of time they last varies from person to person. The average length of time is two weeks, but for some others the symptoms can last for months, depending on what other medications you are on and what your general health Rena Sherwood

Brain damage risk: ultra rapid detox without withdrawal

As it has been mentioned, the withdrawal symptoms are a fundamental obstacle for methadone detox treatment. This is because withdrawal from consumption of methadone is not sufficient to eliminate the serious alterations that methadone produces in brain cells. Moreover, current medications used in detox treatment do not restore damaged areas, but mask symptoms.

Once in the brain, methadone affects chemicals called neurotransmitters. These are the chemicals that control the flow of information within the brain between the neurons or brain cells, forming a synapse. Neurotransmitters also alter people's moods and feelings.

Opiates like methadone stimulate a "pleasure system" in the brain. This system involves neurons in the midbrain that use the neurotransmitter called "dopamine." These midbrain dopamine neurons project to another structure called the nucleus accumbens which then projects to the cerebral cortex. This system is responsible for the pleasurable effects of methadone and for the addictive power of the drug. Other neurotransmitter systems, such as those related to endorphins, are also likely to be involved with withdrawal from and tolerance to methadone.

Therefore, to avoid the withdrawal syndrome, it is necessary to restore brain systems and functions that have been damaged by the methadone addiction. But this is not possible just with detox. Neurons must be recovered. Only a pharmacological intervention, to recover the normal neural functioning of the brain structures harmed by methadone, allows a detox without withdrawal symptoms and without craving. Moreover, it allows the recovery of higher cognitive and affective processes as attention, reading abilities, conciousness or serenity.

Because there is a risk of serious adverse consequences for most patients who undergo withdrawal, it is necessary an advanced pharmacological treatment in a medically-monitored inpatient detox. This is an organized service delivered by medical and nursing professionals, which provides for 24-hour medically supervised evaluation and recovery management in a permanent facility with inpatient beds. Services are delivered under a defined set of physician-approved policies and physician-monitored procedures or clinical protocols.

·  Warning

It is dangerous to try and stop methadone suddenly ("cold turkey") because of the withdrawal symptoms, especially the risk of seizures. When wanting to reduce or stop methadone, a gradual decrease in dosage must be used under a doctor's supervision. Also, a hospital or rehabilitation setting can help distract a patient from their pain and offer safe painkillers depending on the patient's individual health needs. Rena Sherwood