Methadone Lawsuits
Posted by Jared Green on June 26, 2010
Methadone, a synthetic form of opium, entered the US market in 1947. It was first used as a pain reliever. During the Nixon administration, methadone clinics opened in Washington DC to treat those addicted to heroin. Soon thereafter, methadone clinics sprang up around the clinic and were widely seen as a positive treatment for opium addiction.
However, methadone has become the fastest growing cause of narcotic deaths. It's cheap and longer lasting than other pain relieving drugs such as Oxycontin. It has been widely hailed by users as an alternative in fighting chronic pain.
Yet, methadone has been implicated in twice as many deaths as heroin. The FDA has acknowledged that it's been slow to respond to the dangerous hazards of methadone as well as physician ignorance concerning prescribing practices.
According to the NY Times, "The rise of methadone is in part because of a major change in medical attitudes in the 1990s, as doctors accepted that debilitating pain was often under treated. Insurance plans embraced methadone as a generic, cheaper alternative to other long-lasting painkillers like OxyContin, and many doctors switched to prescribing it because it seemed less controversial and perhaps less prone to abuse than OxyContin."
Methadone prescriptions have risen 700% from 1998 to 2006. In spite of this dramatic prescription rise, experts believe doctors remain unaware of the dangers of methadone and the manner in which it is slowly metabolized in the body. This ignorance can lead to prescribing too much methadone too quickly. This can lead to a build-up of the drug and an intolerance to it, eventually contributing to methadone addiction, which is very difficult to break.
Dr. Bob Rappaport, a division director for the FDA noted, "Methadone is an extremely difficult drug to use, even for specialists. People were using it rather blithely for several years.”
In fact, for decades the FDA was part of the problem. The FDA's package insert recommended initial doses of methadone up to 80 mg daily for pain. Dr. Robert G. Newman, former president of Beth Israel Hospital in New York stated,
“This could unequivocally cause death in patients who have not recently been using narcotics.”
Finally, in 2006, the FDA changed course on methadone. The federal agency issued a public health advisory entitled, "Methadone Use for Pain Control May Result in Death and Life-Threatening Changes in Breathing and Heartbeat". In the advisory, the FDA noted that it had received reports of methadone-related deaths and acknowledged that methadone use can cause slow or shallow breathing and cardiac changes of which the methadone user is unaware.
Methadone treatment for chronic pain or drug addiction may be cheaper but it's a potentially dangerous alternative. It remains difficult to prescribe and monitor properly and withdrawal from methadone has been shown to be more difficult that withdrawal from heroin.
However, methadone has become the fastest growing cause of narcotic deaths. It's cheap and longer lasting than other pain relieving drugs such as Oxycontin. It has been widely hailed by users as an alternative in fighting chronic pain.
Yet, methadone has been implicated in twice as many deaths as heroin. The FDA has acknowledged that it's been slow to respond to the dangerous hazards of methadone as well as physician ignorance concerning prescribing practices.
According to the NY Times, "The rise of methadone is in part because of a major change in medical attitudes in the 1990s, as doctors accepted that debilitating pain was often under treated. Insurance plans embraced methadone as a generic, cheaper alternative to other long-lasting painkillers like OxyContin, and many doctors switched to prescribing it because it seemed less controversial and perhaps less prone to abuse than OxyContin."
Methadone prescriptions have risen 700% from 1998 to 2006. In spite of this dramatic prescription rise, experts believe doctors remain unaware of the dangers of methadone and the manner in which it is slowly metabolized in the body. This ignorance can lead to prescribing too much methadone too quickly. This can lead to a build-up of the drug and an intolerance to it, eventually contributing to methadone addiction, which is very difficult to break.
Dr. Bob Rappaport, a division director for the FDA noted, "Methadone is an extremely difficult drug to use, even for specialists. People were using it rather blithely for several years.”
In fact, for decades the FDA was part of the problem. The FDA's package insert recommended initial doses of methadone up to 80 mg daily for pain. Dr. Robert G. Newman, former president of Beth Israel Hospital in New York stated,
“This could unequivocally cause death in patients who have not recently been using narcotics.”
Finally, in 2006, the FDA changed course on methadone. The federal agency issued a public health advisory entitled, "Methadone Use for Pain Control May Result in Death and Life-Threatening Changes in Breathing and Heartbeat". In the advisory, the FDA noted that it had received reports of methadone-related deaths and acknowledged that methadone use can cause slow or shallow breathing and cardiac changes of which the methadone user is unaware.
Methadone treatment for chronic pain or drug addiction may be cheaper but it's a potentially dangerous alternative. It remains difficult to prescribe and monitor properly and withdrawal from methadone has been shown to be more difficult that withdrawal from heroin.
Contact Jared Green:
1-800-662-6230 or jgreen@arbd.com
