Methadone Overdose

Methadone is a unique prescription medication prescribed to treat two issues: chronic pain and opiate drug addiction. Opioid-based painkillers are always highly regulated, but drugs used to treat opiate addiction are painstakingly so, with rules and restrictions on not only the person taking the drug but the circumstances under which it can be taken and who can prescribe it. Due to the fact that those needing treatment for opiate addiction are more likely to abuse an opiate even if it is to treat their drug addiction, methadone can only be given in liquid form at a clinic that specializes in drug addiction.

Methadone Overdose Articles

Unfortunately, despite the fact that the drug is so highly regulated, methadone overdoses have risen exponentially in the past five years. Meditox can help you reduce your risk of methadone overdose by treating your addiction with Suboxone, an opioid-based drug with an antagonist component that helps you avoid withdrawal symptoms usually associated with detox.

What are the Signs of a Methadone Overdose?

A methadone overdose is easy to spot: shallow and labored breathing, extreme drowsiness or "nodding," disorientation and mental confusion, muscle and stomach spasms, weak heart beat. In the worst cases, an overdose on methadone can stop your breathing completely, put you in a coma, send you into seizures or any combination of these, ultimately ending in death. All opiate prescriptions depress the respiratory system, making it harder for you to breathe. When you overdose, this respiratory depression is severe and can stop your breathing immediately or slowly over a few hours, changing what appears to be an unconscious state into a coma, circulatory collapse, cardiac arrest and ending in a fatality.

What Do I Do in the Event of a Methadone Overdose?

If you think that you have overdosed on methadone, it is imperative that you contact 911 if you are able. If you are with someone who is taking methadone and you are concerned that they have overdosed, try to wake them. If they don't wake up-and especially if they don't appear to be breathing or you can't find a pulse-call 911 right away. Don't induce vomiting or give them anything to eat or drink and, if they are taking methadone for chronic pain and have a pill bottle in the house, try to locate it so that you can hand it to paramedics when they arrive. You may need to do CPR. If you need guidance, ask the 911 operator to talk you through it.

How is a Methadone Overdose Treated?

When paramedics arrive, you can expect them to do one of two things depending upon the state of the overdose victim: establish an airway and start CPR or administer a dose of naloxone. Naloxone will stop the methadone in its tracks and send the overdose victim into instant Methadone withdrawal. This is a double-edged sword, however. Methadone stays in the system for up to 48 hours, even if you can't feel its effects. Some people accidentally overdose a second time, after the naloxone has been administered, because they don't think that the methadone is working. Unfortunately, even if you aren't experiencing any pain relieving effects, the methadone is still in your system, and another dose so soon after the first overdose is almost certainly going to be lethal.

How Do I Avoid a Methadone Overdose?

While you are taking methadone, you can decrease your chances of experiencing an overdose by avoiding alcohol. Even the minimal amount of alcohol in food products and certain over the counter medications can have a devastating effect when taken in combination with methadone. Other drugs including sedatives, muscle relaxers, water pills, some antibiotics, certain heart and blood pressure medications, MAO inhibitors and HIV medications shouldn't be combined with methadone.

Avoid a Methadone Overdose Through Methadone Addiction Treatment at Meditox

Meditox can help you avoid a methadone overdose in the most effective way possible: treating your addiction to the drug with an outpatient opiate addiction treatment called Suboxone. Suboxone Treatment will help you break your addiction to methadone while practically eliminating the horrible withdrawal symptoms that would otherwise accompany a "cold turkey" detox. And though you will be able to undergo this methadone detox in the privacy of your own home, your Meditox clinical team will be available to you for support and to answer any questions that you may have. Call us today for more information.

If you feel that Meditox might be the right solution for you or your loved one, please call us for a toll-free and private consultation:

Additional Resources

Addiction and Substance Abuse Programs (ASAP), Methodone - Truth or Fiction
RxList.com: Methadone Overdose
WebMD.com: Methadone Overdose

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