Methadone. Is it a replacement therapy?
Methadone is a synthetic effective analgetic that has narcotic properties. It is administered to be taken in or as injections to alleviate severe pain, as well as syrup to suppress attacks of coughing. In addition, methadone is used to treat heroin addiction, and as well as other opiates it falls under the law on opium. It is synthesized in a laboratory, and, thus, it is available both in liquid and in a tablet form. Now this opiate is known mainly as a heroin substituting means and is intended for the medical application.
This preparation was synthesized nearly 50 years ago, and health workers throughout the world have been discussing for about 30 years the expedience of methadone use in treatment of narcotic dependence. The therapy wide-spread in the West still remains the matter of disputes in Ukraine. The main reason against methadone therapy is the proved information that methadone does not help drug addicts to overcome dependency on drugs; there is a banal substitution of one drug by another one. And similarly in the present situation in Ukraine all conditions for methadone “black” market development are created.
There are some myths about advantages of metadone in comparison with heroin:
- The metadone consumer can live in a normal rhythm of life, in connection with its prolongated action. The study of current medical references shows that the action of preparation is experienced only during its administration. In case of long administration its tolerance to the drug rises and it does not exclude a possibility of taking in a dose incompatible with life;
- The user does not have a necessity to introduce methadone intravenously, because methadone can be taken in perorally and it excludes a possibility of HIV and hepatitis C infection. There is some information, that for reaching a quicker effect, a methadone tablet should be ground down and dissolved in water for intravenous introduction. And that does not exclude a probability of sharing the same syringe by a group of drug addicts, it only helps spreading of infections distribution. In addition, white clay can inevitably appear in the vascular network and accumulates in the lungs resulting in talkosis;
- Methadone is sold free of charge, as a result, the user does not need to be engaged in seeking for money in order to buy the expensive heroin. The studies of this problem proved that if tolerance to methadone in an addict rises, then he will need a larger dose, and a drug addict will not stop by anything so as to get it;
- Methadone can be carefully dosed, so the danger of overdose diminishes. It has been proved that patient’s entering the program of methadone support can become a reason for death, especially in the first days of such treatment, in case of administering high enough doses of the preparation and availability of general high tolerance to opiates. Among the patients, who had been treated by methadone and who interrupted this treatment, the death rate is higher, than among those drug addicts who were never treated by methadone;
In order to reduce the mortality among the drug addicts within the methadone program, one should administer this preparation for a long time, thereby in large doses. Id est, methadone can fulfil its therapeutic function only in case of been used as an ordinary drug without any limitation. Actually, it is a legalization of the drug, which deliverance from addicton can appear to be even more difficult than treatment of the primary dependence.
The Medical Centre “Polynar” successfully uses the program of cutting down the methadone addiction. We insisntently recommend: think well before changing for substituting therapy. A synthetic drug can appear much more dangerous and more diffucult for taking it out of the body than natural drugs.
