Prescription Drug Addiction Blog

Methadone is generally prescribed for two reasons: heroin withdrawal symptom management and pain relief. Methadone is actually quite widely prescribed, not only because of the relatively low cost (thus making it appealing for insurance companies to promote its use) but because it remains in the body an extraordinarily long time. Unfortunately, methadone has moved from treating medical conditions to an actual addictive drug. A growing number of people are addicted to this prescription drug.

Building a Tolerance, Building Addiction
Methadone, like most opiates, is quite easy for the body to build a tolerance for. This means that most people addicted to methadone need to take more and more of the drug to nourish their addiction. That is one of the major dangers of methadone addiction. Increased dosage leads to a much higher risk of developing methadone dependence. Most people that take methadone are going to need to take it for an extended period (either waiting for their body to heal or to kick a heroin addiction). This combination of building up tolerance and time can lead to methadone dependence, and eventually to methadone addiction.

It's Easy to Overdose on Methadone
Another one of the dangers of methadone addiction is the fact that it is easy to overdose on. Not only because methadone amplifies other prescription medications, but also because the drug is taken orally. If a drug is taken orally, it becomes much harder to control the amount of methadone taken. Between 1999 and 2004, the number of people that died from methadone more than quadrupled.

Methadone is Difficult to Withdraw From
It is intriguing to note that heroin has a much shorter period of withdrawal than methadone. So the drug that people prescribe to get rid of heroin has a much longer period of withdrawal. People that are trying to kick methadone may still show symptoms of withdrawal five or six weeks after they tried to stop using. Yet another one of the dangers of methadone addiction is it's also much more painful to withdraw from than heroin.

The Side Effects are Brutal
Like most opiates, patients that are trying to stop using methadone should be ready for a varied range of side effects. Some of the reported issues include changes in weight, headaches, vomiting, arrhythmia, changes in blood pressure, hallucinations and nausea.

The Aforementioned Long Half-Life
As previously mentioned, methadone has a long half-life. Approximately 22 hours after consumption, half of the dosage of methadone is still in the body. It can take about five days for a single tablet of methadone (10 mg) to be completely gone from the patient's system. People often do not realize how long methadone resides in the body and end up taking more, eventually leading to an overdose or serious addiction.

Many patients that have been on both sides of the withdrawal of methadone and heroin will tell you that they can stop taking heroin at anytime – but methadone is a completely different type of addiction. There are reports of people having stopped taking heroin 'cold turkey' three times during a 15-year addiction period, but during a 10-year methadone addiction period, they have never been able to stop taking methadone. Ultimately, the dangers of methadone addiction are real and should not be underestimated.