Methadone Abuse
Methadone is a synthetic (manmade) narcotic. It is used legally to treat addiction to narcotics and to relieve severe pain, often in individuals who have cancer or terminal illnesses. Although methadone has been legally available in the United States since 1947, more recently it has emerged as a drug of abuse. This trend may be driven in part by the ready availability of the drug as it increasingly is used in the treatment of narcotic addiction and to relieve chronic pain.
Methadone is available as a tablet, oral solution, or injectable liquid. When used to treat narcotic addiction, methadone suppresses withdrawal symptoms for 24 to 36 hours. Individuals who are prescribed methadone for treatment of heroin addiction experience neither the cravings for heroin nor the euphoric rush that are typically associated with use of that drug.
Information provided by the Treatment Episode Data Set reveals that the number of individuals who were treated for abuse of “other opiates” (a category that includes methadone) increased dramatically from 28,235 in 2000 to 36,265 in 2001. These individuals were predominantly Caucasian; they were nearly evenly split between males and females and represented various age groups. Methadone abuse among high school students is a concern. Nearly 1 percent of high school seniors in the United States abused the drug at least once in their lifetime, according to the University of Michigan's Monitoring the Future Survey. Individuals who abuse methadone risk becoming tolerant of and physically dependent on the drug. When these individuals stop using the drug they may experience withdrawal symptoms including muscle tremors, nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, and abdominal cramps.
Overdosing on methadone poses an additional risk. In some instances, individuals who abuse other narcotics (such as heroin or OxyContin) turn to methadone because of its increasing availability. Methadone, however, does not produce the euphoric rush associated with those other drugs; thus, these users often consume dangerously large quantities of methadone in a vain attempt to attain the desired effect. 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.
How to Know if Someone Is Abusing Methadone
You might need help if you or a loved one:
- Take more than is needed for pain control or a higher dose than prescribed by your doctor
- Take Methadone to get high
- Use Methadone for a longer period of time than prescribed by your doctor
- Develop an increased tolerance for Methadone
- Experience withdrawal signs and symptoms when you don’t take it
- Continued use of Methadone in spite of clearly adverse consequences
- Demonstrate overall loss of control or obsessive-compulsive drug seeking behavior
It is not safe to stop taking Methadone all at once. Instead, dosages should be tapered down under the supervision of a doctor.
Information provided by National Drug Intelligence Center, US Department of Justice