The creators and advocates of the prescription pain reliever and narcotic addiction replacement drug, methadone, may add another damning scientific review to their growing collection of studies of methadone chaos. A study just released from the Oregon University of Science and Health shows that sudden cardiac death is a risk even when the drug is used in "appropriate" doses to treat pain or drug addiction. This reinforces the popular opinion that opiate addicts and chronic pain patients who take methadone every day should be in a safe medical drug detox or drug rehabilitation program rather than risk their lives with methadone. "
For years, the media has been reporting the increasing number of deaths from methadone, but it often incorrectly associates methadone replacement with drug rehabilitation, a misnomer, since methadone for addicts is just the opposite of drug rehab. Addicts are still addicts, and instead of heroin they are hooked on methadone. Most stories report methadone overdose deaths, but the Oregon study published in The American Journal of Medicine says that many methadone deaths are not overdoses, but result from normally prescribed fentanyl patch.
Only a quarter of all sudden deaths associated with prescribed doses of methadone, not overdoses, had detectable heart abnormalities that could explain the deaths, according to the study. Deaths among a population not taking methadone showed more than a third of cardiac abnormalities involved. The findings strongly implicate methadone as a cause of sudden death.
Methadone can also be easily dosed: Because its depressive effect on the respiratory system lasts longer than its pain-relieving properties, patients take longer to get relief and end up with an overdose. It can also take several days before the effects of the medication are fully felt, which can lead people to take more and again overdose.
Methadone is a synthetic opioid drug, chemically different from morphine or heroin, it is equally addictive and creates the same effects on the brain. Methadone addiction is as serious as heroin and morphine, and withdrawal symptoms last longer. Heroin and morphine addicts in methadone replacement programs entering drug rehab must also manage methadone addiction along with their previous addictions. Thousands of others have needed drug detoxification and drug rehab due to methadone addiction itself. And thousands more died, were injured, or required drug detoxification and drug rehabilitation for taking only their prescribed doses of methadone for chronic pain.
Methadone deaths are on the rise in all states, increasing more than 300 percent since 2000, more than the increase in prescriptions for the drug. In Utah, for example, state health officials reported that 70 percent of methadone deaths occur within a week after patients get a prescription, change their prescription, reinstate use after stopping the medication for a period of time or first get the drug from someone with a legal prescription These findings seem to correspond directly to the new Oregon study.
It is the same story across states, and despite statistics, no state has taken the initiative to replace its state and federally funded methadone programs with actual drug rehab programs. Offering true freedom from addiction, drug rehab programs are sidelined in favor of methadone addiction, easier for methadone clinic staff, but not so easy for addicts. Consider long-term denial of drug rehab because treatment professionals and local, state, and federal officials lack the backbone to effectively confront and manage drug addicts and lead them to drug rehab.
We are not alone in thinking that "treatment for methadone addiction" should be correctly renamed as "continuation of methadone addiction". Relatives, relatives and friends of methadone victims have been signing online petitions for thousands, demanding that the drug be reclassified or even banned. But until drug officials open their eyes and hearts to what is really happening and admit that there are better ways, we are stuck with the murderous drug.
No comments:
Post a Comment