Recently, my neurologist has prescribed a methadone for pain. Has anyone taken it and what are your feeling about it?
hi Maggie, I wanted to respond to this not because I've taken methadone, because I haven't, but because I am a pharmacist and I treat a lot of patients with a variety of pain disorders. I had a similar discussion with an individual a few days ago, and my feelings are basically that methadone, given in the correct doses, is a phenomenal pain med. it has inherent long lasting analgesic activity, so even if early in in treatment you start feeling breakthrough pain before your next dose is due, eventually your body will build up enough of a baseline of the medication that it should actually work for longer periods. it is not combined with other meds like ibuprofen or tylenol, so it is a bit less toxic than some of the other available high potency opioids, and it does not generally have the euphoria and other effects which tend to cause a psychological dependency vs the physiologic need for the pain control.
oh, and all things considered, it is cheap!
of course it has some drawbacks, I've had patients with pain from long standing infections, and there sre some meds, such as zyvox, which basically diminish the analgesic effects, also, sincenit stays in the body a long time, an adverse reaction can take a while to diminish. also, it should not be used ifnyou are not already opioid tolerant - same as with many of the other stronger / long acting meds in the class.
if you have any questions feel free to email / contact me via this site. I hate to leave my email out there any more since all these spam trawlers capture them!!!
good luck.
Linda
Hi Maggie,
I have been on methadone for chronic pain for 5 years now Im in Uk and was put on it when it was still a fairly 'new' controversial pain control programme. All i can tell you is that I agree with lindias comments above. If you are opioid tolerant and your pain is opioid receptive then it is a fantastic treatment. I had been on so much crap like codeine, tramadol, fentayl everything out there - for years and totally drugged up - methadone I find leaves you much more lucid and has far less side effects. For me only drawback is that i feel rather sick taking it so have to take it in tablet form and with an anticimitic (to combat nausea). I take methadone 60 mg a day split 3 doses(smaller doses more frequent minimises breakthrough pain).
However note that i take methadone for chronic pain due to cancer treatment/damage , I was never prescribed it for EM. I have had EM/FM for 6 months now so was already on the stuff thus my opinion may be clouded. Personally, methadone does not seem to help with EM or FM pain, and i would argue that EM/FM is not opioid receptive. In fact aspirin (super high dose) with ibuprofen and strangely antihistamine (lorazatine only) helps me more.
Of course my pain specialist disagrees and maintains that without methadone my EM/FM situation would be worse. I doubt my EM/FM pain or flares etc could be worse - i am now mostly bedridden, , poor quality of life,and on walking sticks..
One point is that with the methadone you may need a fast acting pain relief for breakthrough - i do - I take oxycontin(oxycondone) - i swear by it for my chronic pain
Have tried pregabalin, gabapentin, topiramate and everything going for the EM/FM but no difference at all just horrible side effects. It seems that nothing really touches EM/FM.
If you would like to discuss further and other meds just PM me and we can chat.
I know what you are going through and I am so sorry - this is truly a wicked disorder.
You are in my thoughts and prayers
God Bless
mads x