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Author: Admin | 2025-04-28
Treatment, and it may be helpful to speak with your doctor about other possible options to prevent methadone overdose.5Methadone’s long-lasting effects are most helpful for individuals with OUD and least helpful for long-acting pain relief. If you are taking methadone for pain, your pain may return before your next dose is prescribed, which adds to the risk of taking more methadone than prescribed to reduce your pain. Be sure you understand the amount and directions for the methadone dose your doctor prescribed, as unintentional overdose can occur.3Additionally, mixing methadone with other illegal or prescription drugs can also increase the risk of a methadone overdose and may cause severe heart problems, including cardiac arrhythmia.7 Individuals who take both methadone in combination with benzodiazepines, other sedative hypnotics, or alcohol are at higher risk due to the side effects of respiratory depression. Alcohol should also not be mixed with methadone use.Additional risk factors of methadone overdose include:3Long-term methadone useRecipients of rotating several different kinds of opioidsPrevious methadone overdoseIncreased tolerance to methadoneThe need for pain relief while struggling with a co-occurring substance use disorderA history of opioid use disorder or opioid misuseIf you or someone you know is addicted to methadone or misuses methadone, treatment is available. Call our confidential helpline at 800-994-1867Who Answers? to speak to a treatment support specialist. They can help you find the right treatment program for you.ResourcesDrug Enforcement Administration. (2019, December). Methadone.Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.. (2022). Methadone.Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. (2018). SAMHSA Opioid Overdose Toolkit.S. National Library of Medicine. (2019, October). Methadone overdose.Faul, M., Bohm, M., & Alexander, C. (2017, March). Methadone prescribing and overdose and the association with Medicaid preferred drug list policies — United States, 2007–2014. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 66(12), 320-323.Grissinger M. (2011, August). Keeping patients safe from methadone overdoses. P & T : a peer-reviewed journal for formulary management, 36(8), 462-466.Chou, R., Weimer, M. B., & Dana, T. (2014). Methadone overdose and cardiac arrhythmia potential: findings from a review of the evidence for an American Pain Society and College on Problems of Drug Dependence clinical practice guideline. The Journal of Pain, 15(4), 338-365.
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