Methadone

Is anyone on low dose methadone for peripheral neuropathy? Can you comment on your experience? My insurance has denied lyrica and the next step is methadone.

I would NOT do that. Fight the insurance company because methadone is one of the hardest known drugs out there. Its not specifically any better for neuropathy than any other opiates but its about ten times worse to get off of. It carries over 888 known drug reactions to other drugs and vits and thats not including food. Everything Dorothy said in her post is a risk factor or side effect plus many many more,some highly dangerous such as cardiac issues.

Its an old drug,cheapest opiate therefore what they try to get by with. Definitely not worth the trouble or the risks. Dorothy took it for 5 months and had heavy issues I was on for 13 years so imagine what I was left with. Took more than 2 years just to get off of it.

You can use the search at the top of this page and see what others think. Read the post titled "wish me luck" another methadone user attempting to get off.

Usually, Methadone is one of the last pain meds that drs try. As a matter of fact, Washington has a push on for Methadone to be the last resort after all other pain meds have failed. This is due to the high number of deaths, according to the information. I agree about fighting the insurance company.

We see lots of people have problems getting Lyrica approved the first time out. Usually the dr provides the information needed by insurance to get it through, such as a "letter of necessity". Its a well known fact, backed up by studies that opioids have no effect on nerve pain. If your dr wants you on such there are far too many others out there than Methadone. You can look back through a couple of pages here in this forum & you should be able to find a post about the recent info out of Washington & the use of Methadone for chronic pain. There is also a lot of info archived here about Methadone you may want to read by using the search feature.

I completely understand your need for some relief, PN is horrible, however, with that being said Methadone is not something I would consider personally. Every drug out there has it own set of problems which most of us are aware of or should be. I hate seeing anyone fall into a trap with it regardless of the dosage, just not worth it.

Thanks lahaina! That's really encouraging.

PlatinumPixie, it stinks when employers are self insured as yours. I have seen the chaos first hand what the term "self Insured" can create for individuals. Insurance is difficult enough but they give a whole new meaning to it. I have crohns & a couple years later dx'd with UC to top things off. The bios are out for me, try to fix one thing & end up with something totally different.

You asked for info about Methadone & got responses. You can use the search feature here at HW & read posts from other members that were on Methadone & read their stories. Take care.

Thanks lahaina. I'm hopeful and not scared of this drug. Today is day 3 and no relief yet but she started me very low and I know it can take several days to work because of the long half-life. It never occurred to me that there would be such controversy when I posted.

Chronic pain patients are usually so desperate for something to manage that pain that they don't look ahead. Not everyone reacts to meds in the same way. But, when the vast majority of people that have taken a particular drug have had negative experiences that are the same or similiar, that shouldn't be ignored. But, it is up to each person to decide if the gamble is worth it to them. If they take it and lose, they do so with full knowledge of what might happen. All people can do that have had an experience is share it, they can't make the decision for someone else.

I haven't taken Methadone and I never will, but I felt that way before I knew about all of the negative side effects. To me it is like jumping from the frying pan into the fire.

I wasn't going to comment on this thread, as I have not taken methadone myself. But then I decided that I DO have a lot of experience being associated with many who have taken it...so I'm putting my $0.02 in. Yes, there is a (very small) subset of folks who have successfully taken methadone for pain management. However, I have also witnessed peoples' personalities change over time, as a result of this medication. And 3 people, in two 'real life' support groups I belonged to, died as a direct result of methadone. Two of their deaths were related to long Q-T syndrome (no previous history of) and the other was related to the long half-life of methadone and inexperienced medical personnel. The personality changes we witnessed in some members were profound. They didn't seem to 'feel' anything anymore...no highs or lows...they were just 'there' physically. They would forget words (these were very educated people). They would often tell us that they just didn't feel like doing anything anymore, they didn't feel like themselves, that they got no pleasure out of anything. A lot of feedback came from spouses, friends, family. Some wouldn't (or couldn't) make the connection between how they were feeling, and the methadone. And those who realized it was the med changing them and decided to get off of it? Pure hell is how most described it. Many had been on other opiates prior, like oxycodone and hydrocodone. I would say that out of maybe 25 people, 23 of them said it was much harder, and took much longer, to get completely off the methadone than other opiates. ~~ I did not post this to scare or even to warn...it was simply to educate. These are not opinions, these are real-life facts, involving real people. Me personally? There are too many other choices/combinations of other meds available to ever consider taking methadone. Good luck....definitely hope your experience with it is a good one.

I am going to go ahead & lock this thread since lahaina has ruined it for anyone else. Any time a member asks questions about Methadone, lahaina for whatever reason you attack Vickie when she posts her experience about it And yes lahaina, the only time you post here in this forum is when the thread is about Methadone. I have to wonder if your meanness & snarkey attitude is related to your Methadone, or are you always this way. We will see how you toot your horn about Methadone when the day comes & you have to go off of it.

There are plenty of stories archived here from members that had great difficulty with Methadone & big problems trying to get off of it. A lot of those people stated they wished they had never taken it for a variety of reasons. Vickie's experience is not limited to just her as lahaina stated.

PP, normally we don't have this sort of problem in this forum except when Methadone is mentioned & lahaina shows up. No one is disputing that Methadone can be a good pain reliever & it is also a very cheap medication which is why drs were prescribing it widely. Many drs will no longer rx it for CP.

We feel like if you don't want an honest answer then don't ask the questions.