Methadone treatment for pain states.

Methadone Treatment for Pain States

Torsade de pointes associated with very-high-dose methadone.

BACKGROUND Methadone is an effective treatment for opioid dependency and chronic pain. A methadone derivative, levacetylmethadol, was withdrawn from the European market after being associated with torsade de pointes. To date, no association between methadone and this arrhythmia has been described. OBJECTIVE To evaluate a series of methadone-treated patients experiencing torsade de pointes. ...

Vital signs: risk for overdose from methadone used for pain relief - United States, 1999-2010.

BACKGROUND Vital statistics data suggest that the opioid pain reliever (OPR) methadone is involved in one third of OPR-related overdose deaths, but it accounts for only a few percent of OPR prescriptions. METHODS CDC analyzed rates of fatal methadone overdoses and sales nationally during 1999-2010 and rates of overdose death for methadone compared with rates for other major opioids in 13 stat...

Methadone Prescribing and Overdose and the Association with Medicaid Preferred Drug List Policies — United States, 2007–2014

Drug overdose is a leading cause of injury death in the United States; 47,055 fatal drug overdoses were reported in 2014, a 6.5% increase from the previous year (1), driven by opioid use disorder (2,3). Methadone is an opioid prescribed for pain management and is also provided through opioid treatment programs to treat opioid use disorders. Because methadone might remain in a person's system lo...

Methadone: applied pharmacology and use as adjunctive treatment in chronic pain.

This article reviews the unique pharmacological properties of methadone and outlines its appropriate clinical application, with focus upon its use in the treatment of chronic pain. Although methadone is most widely known for its use in the treatment of opioid dependence, methadone also provides effective analgesia. Patients who experience inadequate pain relief or intolerable side effects with ...