Methadone Addiction
LINKS ON METHADONE
Effects of Methadone
Methadone Addiction
How Methadone is Used
Methadone in the News
History of Methadone
Pictures of Methadone

    
News/Information/Articles
 Feb 8, 2003
Methadone Treatment Investigated
Following the death of a 24-year-old University of Montevallo student from methadone, Alabama authorities have ...
 Feb 8, 2003
Methadone Overdose, Deaths on Rise in U.S.
Throughout the United States, overdoses and deaths from methadone, a drug used to relieve chronic ...
 Jan 22, 2003
Drug Rehabilitation Center Opens
Narconon, a world leader in drug addiction rehabilitation has successfully helped thousands of addicts recover ...


Print this article

Send this article to a friend

Add to Favorites



 

How Methadone is Used


Methadone is a (synthetic opiate) narcotic that when administered once a day, orally, in adequate doses, can usually suppress a heroin addict's craving
 
and withdrawal for 24 hours. Patients are as physically dependent on methadone as they were to heroin or other opiates, such as Oxycotin or Vicodin. Each time an addict uses heroin, there is a cycle of consisting of intoxication, initially, followed by a period of normal mental functioning which then yields to the discomfort of withdrawal and craving (flu-like symptoms with pain, anxiety and depression).
The cycle that repeats every 4 to 8 hours with heroin is eliminated by expert methadone

maintenance treatment. This is possible because methadone is released more slowly into the system and lasts much longer than heroin and most other opiates. Short acting opiates, like heroin, hydrocodone and morphine perpetuate and/or create abnormal processes in the brain, which interfere with feeling normal and functioning normally. Taking methadone, instead, stops most aspects of this destructive process while normalizing important neurobiological functions. After stabilization on the proper dose, methadone does not produce the rush or “high” associated with heroin abuse.

 

top of page






Copyright © 2008 Methadone 2