The patient should alcoholism be given a patient information statement containing all of the above information and asked to read it. If the patient cannot read, the patient information statement should be read aloud. If the patient is happy to begin treatment after this process, he or she should sign a consent form to this effect. Methadone must be stored in a secure area within the medical clinic, for example, locked in a room or safe.
Other side effects of methadone
Your healthcare professional may prescribe opioids to help you get through a few days of severe pain after surgery or a serious injury. Opioid medicines also can play an important role in treating pain from cancer. Rarely, opioids may be used to treat long-term pain that’s not caused by cancer when other treatments have not worked. Methadone targets the same brain receptors that were altered by severe opioid addiction. Occupying these receptors, methadone prevents the severe withdrawal symptoms, which are the main problem for drug addicts. Finally, the brain how do you get off methadone changes so drastically that a person can’t feel normal without the drug.
Are there any complications or side effects?
Stopping methadone should not be uncomfortable, but does take time — often many months. Patients that rush the process experience unpleasant methadone withdrawal symptoms and are at high risk for relapse. Quitting cold turkey is a decision that could lead to extremely severe withdrawal symptoms.
Safely Tapering Off Opioids
Contact your healthcare provider right away if you have pain from things that did not cause pain before or an increase in pain intensity. It is very important to not take more methadone if your pain feels worse, as this may cause significant breathing problems. For those who are using methadone for pain management, a gradual reduction of the methadone dose under the supervision of your physician may be suitable when cautions and monitoring processes are in place. Methadone can also replace another opioid drug that you have an addiction to.
For healthcare professionals
Ultimately, a medical detox program can help to lower the intensity of withdrawal symptoms and provide around-the-clock support, making a successful detox much more likely. The stabilization amount of methadone may need to be kept up for several days or weeks during a taper until the dosage can safely be stopped. Dosage and tapering should be monitored and adjusted by a health care professional. A slow methadone taper can take several weeks, lowering the dosage once a week or so. A more rapid methadone taper can lower the dosage by 10 percent every day for a week or two, depending on the starting dose.
