The Right Opioid Dosing And Avoiding The Addiction Trap

By Kevin Graham


The miracle of opioid pain relief is fatally limited by tolerance, addiction, and respiratory depression. Buprenorphine, when combined with a mu agonist, results in game-changing effects. Patients experience potent, dose-related analgesia from the agonist, but have NO euphoria. The therapeutic window is widened. Patients unable to control their use of a mu agonist alone gain that control when on buprenorphine. And most exciting, buprenorphine indefinitely anchors tolerance, maintaining analgesia WITHOUT DOSE ESCALATION. This finding offers huge implications for pain management and opioid dosing.

Opioid medications are prescribed for patients with painful conditions and the response is typically excellent pain relief. There are side effects which may include constipation, tolerance, depression, and sedation. With chronic pain affecting 15% of the US population, doctors are prescribing narcotic medications with alarming frequency.

Because of methadone's slow release, individuals who seek a fast high might take a dose, not get a high then consume more. By the time they get high, in a few instances, they've already consumed too much. Odds of revival are a lot lower for overdose of methadone than for additional opiates because of the long lasting nature of the drug. If you believe somebody has overdosed on this drug, contact 911 and immediately get them emergency assistance.

Patients in chronic pain are likely to take opioids for multiple years. A study done at the Universities of Washington and Arkansas showed when patients are prescribed opioids for chronic pain, they are likely to still be taking them 5 years later.

Methadone is a synthetic opioid mainly prescribed as a long range replacement therapy for dependence to opioids. While methadone was once administered strictly at licensed methadone rehabilitation detox hospitals and drug clinics, within the past several years the drug is being prescribed in a pill form for severe pain. As such, the drug now can be discovered on the street, and quickly has become a top cause of accidental overdose within recreational drug users.

Opioid-induced hyperalgesia is a condition that can result from long-term opioid use. It represents a heightened perception of pain and can make one feel worse with more pain sensation. The solution to this problem is a decrease or discontinuation of the medication which should be accomplished under medical supervision. The discontinuation can result in less pain than while on the medications.

Induction is a treatment which carefully is followed by the center's clinical staff to slowly assist a new patient in adjusting to their methadone medicine. Patients typically are started on a safe methadone dose which introduces a low threat of overdose, and their dose then is increased every couple of days until the individual arrives at a dosage that successfully eliminates their withdrawal symptoms to opioids.

A tolerance will develop as the body gets used to methadone treatment that will require methadone users to consume higher doses to experience their high. As very high doses don't offer the same effects, users are going to move forward with harder drugs.

By blending drugs, abusers will risk overdose and dangerous interactions. Permitting this harmful experimentation encourages and enables addiction. If someone you love or yourself is abusing methadone, quit before you cause further harm.




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