Methadone has been used to treat people addicted to heroin since the 1960s. People who use it are aging and can be subject to the same diseases of old age and unhealthy lifestyles as the rest of the population. Researchers from Emory University in the U.S. studied 91 people who had been enrolled on the methadone-maintenance programme at the Atlanta Veterans Affairs Medical Center. They found that people who had been using methadone for a long time were more likely to die of diabetes and liver and gastrointestinal cancer (although there was no indication that this was due to the methadone). However methadone had reduced drug use and psychiatric, medial and legal problems among long-term users. Those who had dropped out of methadone treatment showed no improvement in their addictive behaviour.
Fareed, Ayman ... [et al] - Benefits of retention in methadone maintenance and chronic medical conditions as risk factors for premature death among older heroin addicts Journal of Psychiatric Practice May 2009, 15(3), 227-234
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This drug then must be prescribed depending on risk
Geneza Pharmaceuticals
methadone seriously affects your mental health I was on methadone from 2001-2005 and went cold turkey from it, the withdrawal symptoms are much worse than heroin, you can come off heroin cold turkey in a week with methadone the most severe withdrawal symptoms dont really kick in until a week from coming off it and I was very ill for at least a month it was 2 months before i felt like myself again...I then had to go back on methadone again in 2006 when i became pregnant, I was told that a monitored methadone programme was safer for my baby than my erratic drug taking, and I agree that it was the best thing to do my baby was born at a normal healthy weight and had no withdrawal symptoms...today i am still on methadone but have been drug free since having my baby but the effects on my mental health have been huge,I have went from being outgoing popular, very confident and hard working to being completely withdrawn, paranoid and depressed, i will cross the road so i dont have to say hello to people i have known for years and I have no confidence at all i am not the only person who is experiencing these symptoms, I know of people who dont leave their houses . My first time on methadone I never left the house for months at a time and only did leave when necessary. Heroin does not have the same effects on your mental health the way methadone does, methadone steals your soul and robs you of your identity so that the person you once were seems almost like a dream...If I had known back in 2000 the effects methadone would have on my mental health I would never have went near it. If anyone is thinking of going on a methadone programme then think very seriously about it. They are quick to prescribe methadone and then send you on your way with no thought of how it will affect your entire life and personality, they fail to tell you all this just how great it is at managing your heroin addiction, it manages the withdrawals from heroin but not the craving or the urge, that takes will power my first course of treatment I still took heroin all the way through it, only my 2nd and current programme have i managed to stay clean and i dont give methadone the credit for that it was having my daughter that got me off heroin NOT methadone. Methadone is a far worse addiction than heroin..many addicts still use heroin on top of their methadone they just use it so they will not have withdrawals if they cant get the drug..It does stop people going out and committing crimes to get drugs and i think that is the reason for giving it so freely. In my country (UK) if you get drug tested while on methadone and are found to have heroin in your system they dont stop your treatment or reduce your dose they just increase you dose and keep increasing it and therefore making you more dependent on it. It is substituting one addiction for an even worse one
Thank you for your experience! Im with a woman who is a big pill addict and she got pregnant, they put her on methadone and now i know what to expect........
im om methadone for pain from cancer and cancer treatments im currently cancer free but the pain from the nerve damage is so bad i cant stand it without the methadone. i have tried other pain meds but im to scared they will kill me so im thankful to know that this is safer for life long use. i didnt know this till now so thank you. and i know what you mean about the personality changes but i think i can live with that now. i would rather avoid people than be in pain. please dont be so down on yourself addiction is a disease too. thank you and god bless you all.
if anyone would care to talk whatever your problem im here at kathyjo9162@yahoo.com
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