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Posted 6/2/2008 5:58 AM (GMT 0)
Anybody here take Methadone. I take 120 mg. a day. It helps but doesn't do the job. Is Methadone easier on the body than some other Opiates.
Some people think Methadone is for withdrawel from Heroin. (This is not the case with me!) I have terrible back pain and have been in soo much pain for six years.
Pamela Neckpain
Posted 6/2/2008 2:04 PM (GMT 0)
A friend of mine started the Methadone treatment to get her off illegal opiates. She now says she uses it for pain management, however she doesn't seem to be in much pain before she takes her daily dose. I have never been on Methadone but she seems to think that is the only way to go with her "pain". She also told me that Methadone is harder to withdraw from than opiates. The clinic she uses encourages increases in dose but is hesitant to decrease. Does this sound right? Also she loves "benzos"; says they help the Methadone work better and she MUST have them if she goes off the Methadone. Again, does this sound right?

As you can tell, I really don't know much, if anything, about Methadone. She says there are old ladies in line for the Meth clinic because their regular prescribed pain meds are not helping with their pain as much as they need. I find this kind of hard to believe but there are alot of us CPPs that do not receive appropriate pain meds to make our lives at least tolerable.

I'm sure you will have input from others much more knowledgable. I really don't know what your question is.
Posted 6/2/2008 4:57 PM (GMT 0)
Lassie,
I agree with Gramps that your friend may likely have an addiction problem. Another clue is her comment about still needing "benzos". That being said, my cousin is a pharmacist and just told me last weekend she had gone to a conference on pain management and methadone was discussed as a potentially more effective way of managing a lot of CP. OF course, it's also cheaper for the insurance companies.

PaLady
Posted 6/2/2008 6:50 PM (GMT 0)

Hi,

I just started methadone as my treatment for pain, I was on morphine er & ir . So far I have had little or no withdrawl symptoms, I am on a two week trial to see if the methadone can fully replace the morphine I was taking. It seems to good to be true that methadone can help better than the morphine, but at this point I just want to feel better. The pain was ruining my life and I had to do something, best of luck.

Posted 6/2/2008 10:14 PM (GMT 0)
Methadone is not an opium derivative; it was created as a cheap and easy replacement for opium derivatives. Some pain meds have more effect on certain types of pain and I don't know what methadone is most effective for. Opium itself and its derivatives to a lesser extend are known for their effectiveness against intestinal pain.

I suppose you should have your doctors figure out what the best pain med for your pain problem is. Since you've been stuck with this for six years, I think it is fair to say we can assume you won't be cured overnight. This means we're talking long duration or lifetime use here. Might be worth figuring out what can make your life easier, although it'll probably cost you a lot of time and money.

Take care.
Posted 6/3/2008 6:36 AM (GMT 0)
I looked at your responses tonight and was really happy. My pain will be with me for life. The area of my spine that is injured is not in a good place for surgery. I've been to reputable teaching hospitals
hospitals and one would have performed surgery, they chose not to. I like to hear from regular people about their experience. I've been to many many doctors and they all have different ideas. You all have different ideas too, but I don't have to go along with your rules. : D
Thank you all. I hope to hear more people speak about Methadone ... or any other medication. I've taken Morphine and it doesn't touch my pain. Thank you thank you thank you.

P.S. I pushed the thumb Icon and accidentally deleted someone here on the board. I don't know who it was. If you know, please advise.
eMac's won't post Emoticons. That's how I got in trouble in the first place ... trying to figure it out.
Pamela Neckpain
Posted 6/3/2008 6:02 PM (GMT 0)
:-)  Hi Pamela,

Looks like you all ready got a lot of good advice and information yet I will still add my two cents. I've used Methadone a few times in my years and years of Chronic Pain and for different reasons. Also my "Man" uses it to control his pain and is happy with it. I think methadone has just got a bad reputation from it's one of many wonderfull uses. Yes - heroin addicts use it for addiction problems, so, many others use it for pain control with great results. I've used it to withdraw from legal opiates after a bad infection in my spine, at first it was embarrasing then no big deal. I've also tried it for pain control and didn't have much relieve from it so I stopped and tried something new. Again no big deal.

The only question here is does it work for you? If it does, great. If not talk to your pain dr. and try something else. Methadone is just a name, period. Good luck Pamela.

                                                                   Toritoo   scool

Posted 6/4/2008 2:52 AM (GMT 0)
one of the greatest, and least well known, benefits of methadone -- along with the fact that it has methods of action present in nearly no other pain medication except for Levorphanol, which is very rare -- is that it can flatten the tolerance curve over time. in short, a given dosage of methadone will continue to work for much longer than a given dosage of a "traditional" opiate.

this is because methadone is an NMDA Antagonist, something which almost no other opiate does except Levorphanol. You can get this effect with other opiates by taking DXM (dextromethorphan, the main ingredient in cough syrup, Nyquil/Dayquil, etc) in moderate dosages every day with your pain medicine. But of course, be sure that none of your other medications conflict with the DXM before taking it -- ask your doc, disclaimer etc etc.

methadone can also control pain that is not adequately controlled by any other opiate. however, there is much debate as to whether it really continues to relieve pain long term or if it only prevents WD symptoms, and pain is actually felt almost unmodified. Many patients taking methadone for addiction treatment claim that they receive no pain relief from it, but that is a complex issue.

In my case, I worry that my hydromorphone (dilaudid) breakthrough medication may not be working well enough due to the blocking effect of my high methadone dosage. Only fentanyl is known for being able to "punch through" the blocking effect due to its extremely high affinity for opiate receptors and the very low dosages required to have an effect.

I would very much like to try Levorphanol as a BT medication alongside methadone, for its NMDA Antagonism, longest action of any non-time-released opiate other than methadone, and nearly Fentanyl-like affinity for receptors, low dosages, etc.....
Posted 6/4/2008 9:30 AM (GMT 0)
Exitwound ..
Hello. I'm glad to have met you. : )
I can't sleep, but I must try. Gosh! a wee teaspoon of Nyquil
might help. My doctor did suggest it, of course but I never
pay too much attention to him.
My pain is not under control. I've tried everything but the pain
pump. If I have an ounce more of pain on the load I'm carrying,
I shall ... hmmmm.......eat 14 cakes.
I will come back and read your post tomorrow. Hopefully, I'll
have my thinking head on at that time.
Pamela Neckpain
Posted 6/4/2008 1:51 PM (GMT 0)

I went to my pain doc last week to talk about a possible med change.  I am taking a time released morphine right now and am almost at the max dosage.  She mentioned methadone but then listed several problems that can arise from taking methdone.

Has any one that has taken methadone had any problems such as rapid heart rate, high blood pressure, etc?

Thanks

Melanie

Posted 6/4/2008 10:49 PM (GMT 0)
Melanie, Your dx's sound a lot like mine.I could add Scoliosis to mine. I'll try to post them soon and we can compare notes. The only really good thing about me is my blood pressure. With this blood presssure, one would think I was running Marathons. Methadone has no bad effects for me -- of course, it's not doing the job, but nothing else will either.
Give it a try. What do you have to lose?
Pamela Neckpain
Ask around
Posted 6/4/2008 11:33 PM (GMT 0)
I have a friend that is on Methadone and has been for several yrs for chronic pain. Methadone has worked great for her.

My exbrotherinlaw's wife is on Methadone for severe migraines. She his having great success.

Gramps gave you great info on it. Methadone is not a short term drug, its a long term drug.

Susie
Posted 6/4/2008 11:34 PM (GMT 0)
It's quite unlikely that you would have those problems with methadone. Very few people, even doctors (including so-called "pain specialists!") have taken all these medications themselves, and even among those who have, virtually none will have to take it under the same circumstances, in the same dosages alongside the many other treatments foisted upon us, as a true chronic pain sufferer does.

Methadone, as I mentioned previously, has many benefits and most of the "downsides" are actually urban legends and junkie myths perpetrated by people who don't have the faintest knowledge of biochemistry, pharmacology or the like.

It may not be the end all be all, but it has a number of unique advantages over "traditional" opiates. i just hope it is really the best choice for me long-term, because I have very much tired of both the search for the perfect pain medications and the search to get effing MaineCare to pay for them.....whidch they never will -- but methadone is dirt cheap so of course they're all for it. Classic. -(

Melanie50 said...
I went to my pain doc last week to talk about a possible med change. I am taking a time released morphine right now and am almost at the max dosage. She mentioned methadone but then listed several problems that can arise from taking methdone.



Has any one that has taken methadone had any problems such as rapid heart rate, high blood pressure, etc?



Thanks



Melanie

Posted 6/6/2008 12:55 AM (GMT 0)

Thank you, everyone, for your responses.  I am taking 180 mgs of Avinza and there is little room to go before I max out on the top dosage.  I am meeting again with my pain doc and his assistant in September to discuss other options. 

If I max out on the morphine I am going to give the methadone a try.  I am so tired of being in pain, as you all are, and if I could get my level to as low as a 3 or 4 I'd be happy.

Take care everyone and pray for a miracle drug.

Melanie

Posted 6/9/2008 8:50 AM (GMT 0)

I have been on methadone for CP for going on 8 years now and have had no side effects after the intial start of treatment. I have had some good effects from being on it health wise. I have been on blood pressure meds for a great many years and these meds are extremely hard on my already declining hearing ability. After adjusting to the methadone my blood pressure kept running extremely low and my EKGs were throwing out bradycardia ( low heart rate) so my Doc took me off the blood pressure meds and low and behold the methadone held it at a much better rate and more evenly then the meds I had been on. I have now been off blood pressure meds for years and have a very stable heart rate for my age.

After the adjusting to the lethargy and just plain falling asleep where you stand effects of methadone I have had no side effects whatsoever thru the years and this med has actually given my some semblance of a life back. I do things now that were not possible prior to methadone treatment or on other opiates.

Like stated earlier on alot of what you hear about methadone is urban legend and simply myth. I have not had to steadily increase my meds to get relief and if anything I am at a much lower dose now then when I started after switching from OC.

The only problem I have encountered is the ability of other opiates say for dental pain to break thru the barrier and bring relief for acute pain from dental work or injurys. Methadone is not a good med for acute pain and needs to build a level in your blood before you get the needed effects and benefits. In other words taking a methadone for say a toothache isnt going to being about much relief. As stated by an earlier poster fentnyl is about the only med that breaks the barrier and not alot of dentists are going to prescribe it for your dental pain.

I have encountered more problems associated with the attidudes of others such as ERs and pharmacists and yes even dentists in thinking my regular meds are going to cover acute pain such as post op pain and dental pain. I usually have to go to my PCP whom prescribes my methadone to get adequate relief for any acute problems that arise since others even Docs that should understand,arise.

For an example I was in a bad car accident back in October and was hospitalized with a tear in my knee replacement and a dislocated shoulder as well as alot of scrapes and bruises as I was ejected from the vehicle and the admitting Doc wrote some ungodly order for a wee dose of morphine to be given between my methadone doses. This was in ICU too! Now you would think that any Doc and especially one that is in emergency medicine would understand the ratio of 1:10 that is required of methadone to morphine right? Not. He might as well have given me water for all the good it did. I was in horrible pain and this went on for over 24 hours before my own Doc got in to see me and rewrote the orders,very unnessary for someone to have to tolerate that kind of pain for that amount of time due to ignorance or lack of understading the way a medicine works.

It is however something alot of methadone users deal with on a daily basis.

Like stated it is not for short term use however and the decision to switch needs to made with care and thought. It seems once someone has been on methadone for long term pain everything else falls short afterwards.

Good luck to you in your search for better treatment though.

NVR

Posted 6/9/2008 2:17 PM (GMT 0)
Neverthesame:
I'm going to have some serious dental work done. I'm glad to know about Fentanyl. My gives "laughing gas" and so far that has worked pretty well. Of course, I've had no pain after getting out of the chair. I did go to the ER, and got a shot of Morphine. It did nothing. Now I know why.
My doctor wants to give me a pain pump. What will be inside the pump? Morphine, of course. Could it be that my pain doctor doesn't know about Methadone? (He wasn't the prescribing doctor)
Thanks for the response.
Be Well.
Pamela Neckpain
Posted 6/10/2008 9:28 AM (GMT 0)
Pamela, I have found that many Docs do not familiarize themselves with the action of methadone since they dont use it often or at all. They seem to categorize right up there with other opiates,the same with ER's and Dentists and the reason they assume that since your on methadone nothing else is required for pain of any sort. Here where I live it appears that folks on methadone are in the hospital computers as being on methadone and I have yet to figure out where or how they get this info since I was taken to a University hospital when I was in a car accident last year and had never been there but they knew I was on methadone! The same for several other folks I know who are on methadone and they have had the very same experiences with hospitals and the knowledge of them knowing we were on methadone.

I have a friend who suffers greatly with migraines on a weekly basis and she finds it almost near to impossible to get any treatment at all for them in the ER since they all say with the methadone she shouldnt be feeling any pain? How absurd is that coming from a Doctor?

Like Gramps said the pump can be loaded with all kinds of mixtures of meds and usually it takes some playing around to get it right for each person. There doesnt seem to be a standard protocol that works for everyone. Morphine is the usual first choice to try unless your allergic to it.

Also trying these meds by way of mouth first and saving the pump as a last resort is good advice again by Gramps and I know from reading here for a long time he is experienced in this more so then I am.

I hope it works out for you no matter which way you go as it seems we spend a lifetime of searching for relief with far smaller results then we care to have.
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