question about methadone

if i wanted to be treated for an addiction to oxycontin is it possible to receive the methadone from a doctor like sub patients do? I am currently taking sub right now but it doesnt do much expect stop my physical w/d. I have taken methadone even been to a few clinics and the methadone stopped both my physical and mental w/d. I know what people might say, well if the methadone clinic was going well why did you stop? It was too confining. I wasnt down with having to wait so long to get take home doses plus when your a patient there your sort of like a prisoner. Asking to go on vacation, not being able to leave to anywhere if you don't have take home privelages. Its too much. In short im just asking if there have been instances where people could be treated with methadone from a private doctor who gives you a script. I know this most likely isn't possible but i was just curious.

 

It stops your mental & physical withdrawls because it is an opiate. Albeit a longer lasting one. Personally I wouldn't go down the methadone road because it has a longer half life than oxy and stays in your system longer and for some can be worse to get off of. I would stick with sub and get out and do something. Do something to take your mind off of it. You have to have a special license to prescribe methadone for detoxing someone. I doubt that someone would give you methadone and let you detox on your own - being that you can just go home and abuse the methadone.

 

yeah thats true ill stick with the sub

 

For a short period of time I was going to a doctor that prescribed me methadone for maintenance purposes. The only catch was that he wrote me a script daily and each morning I would go by his office, pick up the prescription, and then have to go and get it filled at a pharmacy. It was nice that I was able to take the methadone at my own convenience because I could go at 7:00AM when the doctor's office opened or I could go at noon. That was great because the clinic in my area was only open from 6:00AM until 10:00AM so there were never any days that I got to sleep late. I was taking 120mg, or three wafers, a day and I had to take them in the presence of the pharmacist or one of the pharmacy techs. Most doctors will not prescribe methadone for maintenance purposes unless you are going to a Pain Clinic. I have known several people who got addicted to Oxycontin or another type of opiate while being treated at a Pain Clinic so the specialist there would detox them with Methadone. Let me tell you, as I am sure you know since you have been on the maintenance program before, coming off of methadone is hell. I am going to a clinic again now and if I had felt like I had another option when I started I would not have gotten back on it. It is hell to come off of and all I am doing is swapping one addiction for the other. But at the same time, I have been able to hold a steady job, I'm not shooting dope everyday, and I do not have to lie and steal to get money for dope so you could say it has helped me out a lot. Anyways, sorry that was so long but I just dosed this morning so I am in the talking/typing mood. Good luck and try to stay on Suboxone because there are hardly any withdrawals when you come off of it.


-NICU (and then you see ME)

 

I think you can get it scripted in some places. In canada where I live, I think a doctor con script it out to you and then you go to a pharmacy to take your dose. I'm not 100% on that though.

 

Methadone can be prescribed by a family doctor while suboxone needs special certification. Methadone is the best for WD IMO, but as someone said, unless you plan on staying on it forever it is hard to come off of as well. It really depends on the doctor you talk to, Ive heard one doctor I can think of right off the top of my head who said methadone is a great drug and can be stopped easily through a slow weening off process. If I was an addict who wanted to quit, as you sound, to have the easiest transition possible, I would start with methadone then move to subutex and then move to suboxone, but Im not an expert. I think going from a serious opiate habit straight to suboxone would probably cause a good amount of mental WD, which nobody should have to deal with.

 

Has anyone taken both methadone and suboxone? If so, wwhich do you think worked the best for opiate addiction? I use Sub right now and it works good for me.

 

suboxone is way easier to come off of i've heard. a few of my friends say that eventually, you get it down to hardly anything and theres basically no withdrawal.

 

u have to get to .125mg or less of suboxone to come off... and still there is a persistant headache for 2 months. i know, ive been there.

 

Do not EVER take both of these at one time, lol. It will send your ass into rapid withdrawal.

 

Methadone is scripted for pain, but not usually in doses that Methadone clinics would prescribe.

Why are you so anal about take-home doses? You are getting a government funded addiction....why complain about not being able to take the dose home.

You are supposed to dose once a day...that is why they do that.

To answer the question...No....there isn't a magical Methadone Doctor that will treat you like a Suboxone patient, because they are two different treatments. In a done clinic, you have to prove you are trustworthy enough to GET a takehome dose.

That is just personal experience...that is certainly not the norm. You can cut off Subs from 16mg a day cold turkey MUCH easier then ANY other opiate. The headache isn't a normal sub WD symptom either. Just saying....you shouldn't scare people off something that can help them just because you had a bad experience.

 

I felt mildly shitty for several weeks after stopping subs cold from 16 mg a day, but it was nothing I couldn't handle - just a general jittery feeling, some slight stomach issues and a feeling of wanting to punch someone in the neck, lol.

 

I stopped c/t around the 3 month mark and dude... if you know about opiate w/d i had all those symptoms. Full blown. But I cant really compare it to coming off another opiate, because I was on subs for the wrong reason. It has always been my understanding that most opiate w/d last 7-10 days for the worst, and longer lasting ones, such as suboxone and methadone, last 2 weeks or more, but are generally milder.

In any case, I believe you should taper as its a great way to reduce w/ds. Jumping off at .125mg was a walk in the park compared to 6mg. I think anyone seriously thinking about quitting any opiate addiction should try suboxone, but dont let a doctor fool you into being on it any longer than 6-8 weeks tops.

My intentions were not to scare anyone away from suboxone. I wouldnt call it a completely bad experience either. Its just my experience.

 

Suboxone is a blessing, but of course the medical industry is using it to overcharge people. Just like pretty much anything for opiate addicts, we're willing to pay pretty much anything not to be sick.

 

I dont mind too much being sick normally. But when your sick and you know exactly what will make you feel better being sick reaaally sucks. Glad Im out of that situation.

 

I would never take two of these at the same time. Suboxone works well for me. I guess I was just wondering if methadone and suboxone work on the same basic principle. Another thins that I don't understand is why methadone does not get one high when they get their daily dose. Is it a matter of the body getting tolerated to a certain dose?

 

i don't know much about methadone..
but i assume that there dose depends on how bad of a habit they had.
so there not gonna give them enough to get high.
they give them just so much to keep them outta withdrawl.
its an opiate itself, so it would take care of the physical and mental withdrawls.

hope that answers your question.

 

Methadone

Methadone's usefulness in treatment of opioid dependence is the result of several factors. It has cross-tolerance with other opioids including heroin and morphine and a long duration of effect, with the result that oral dosing with methadone will stabilise the patient by stopping the opioid withdrawal syndrome. Secondly, it's also possible to block the euphoric effects of heroin, morphine, and similar drugs but only in higher doses (60-80 mg+). As a result, properly dosed methadone patients can reduce or stop altogether their use of these substances.

Suboxone (Buprenorphine)

Buprenorphine is a thebaine derivative with powerful analgesia approximately twenty-five to forty times as potent as morphine,[11] and its analgesic effect is due to partial agonist activity at μ-opioid receptors, i.e., when the molecule binds to a receptor, it is less likely to transduce a response in contrast to a full agonist such as morphine. Buprenorphine also has very high binding affinity for the μ receptor such that opioid receptor antagonists (e.g. naloxone) only partially reverse its effects. These two properties must be carefully considered by the practitioner, as an overdose cannot be easily reversed (although overdose is unlikely in addicted patients or people with tolerance to opioids who use the drug sublingually as meant in the case of Subutex/Suboxone, especially if there are no benzodiazepines involved), and use in persons physically dependent on full-agonist opioids may trigger opioid withdrawal that also cannot be easily reversed and can last over twenty-four hours, as the drug's mean half-life is thirty-seven hours.

Buprenorphine is also a κ-opioid receptor antagonist, and partial/full agonist at the recombinant human ORL1 nociceptin receptor.[12]

Buprenorphine hydrochloride is administered by intramuscular injection, intravenous infusion, via a transdermal patch, or as a sublingual tablet. It is not administered orally, due to very high first-pass metabolism. Buprenorphine is metabolised by the liver, via the CYP3A4 isozyme of the cytochrome P450 enzyme system, into norbuprenorphine (by N-dealkylation) and other metabolites. The metabolites are further conjugated with glucuronic acid and eliminated mainly through excretion into the bile. The elimination half-life of buprenorphine is 20–73 hours (mean 37). People switching from other opiates should wait until mild to moderate withdrawal symptoms are encountered. Failure to do so can lead to the rapid onset of withdrawal symptoms, known as precipitated withdrawal.[19] (READ DO NOT EVER EVER TAKE THESE TWO TOGETHER)

Sources - Wikipedia.
11 - ^ http://coretext.org/show_detail.asp?recno=6481 Reckitt Benckiser Buprenorphine Bibliography

12 - ^ a b Huang P. et al. (2001): "Comparison of pharmacological activities of buprenorphine and norbuprenorphine: norbuprenorphine is a potent opioid agonist", J. Pharmacol. Exp. Ther. 297(2):688-95. PMID 11303059

19 - # ^ http://www.naabt.org/documents/naabt_precipwd.pdf

 

That is not necessarily true...Most people I know get high from dosing at the clinic everyday. I take 175mg a day, sometimes a little more or a little less, and I get a nice little "glow" and feel great. Sure, the amount a person takes does depend somewhat on the habit they had while using but the clinic I go to does not control how high of a dose you can take. For instance, an old acquaintance of mine started going to the clinic because he wanted to get high, he had been in jail for two years and had been clean for that amount of time as well. The clinic's doctor started him at 25mg and within three weeks he was taking 110mg a day and he is pretty much worthless. I think he has lost three jobs in a two month period because he passes out and acts like a fucking zombie. Methadone can be abused recreationally but for people like me and a few others on this forum, it was a life saver. I do not wish I had started on it but at the time it was pretty much my only option. Just because it is a government program does not mean that people cannot get high, hell, I know of at least ten people that go to my clinic that were not addicted to any painkillers when they started on the clinic, they just wanted to get high for $11 a day. It is people like them that give the rest of us clinic cats a bad name, fuck 'em. The shit has helped me get my life back together. Take it easy, guys.



-NICU

 

alright, yeah.
thats why i started of by saying i don't know much about it.
im glad you stepped in to give info based on personal experience.