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TUESDAY, July 1, 2003 (HealthDayNews) -- The use of methadone as a painkiller -- not just a treatment for heroin addiction -- is responsible for dozens of deaths in just one state, according to the latest study of the drug's dark side.
Methadone, when used properly, is a widely accepted treatment for pain. But its growing popularity as a painkiller appears to have led to misuse -- for example, researchers found the rate of deaths from methadone increased six-fold from 1997 to 2001 in North Carolina.
The statistics reflect those from a similar study in Florida. "It's a drug that become very dangerous when abused," says Bruce A. Goldberger, director of toxicology at the University of Florida's William R. Maples Center for Forensic Medicine and author of the study in that state.
Methadone is best known for its long-standing use in the treatment of heroin addicts. Methadone acts as a much safer alternative to heroin, making it easier for users to fight addiction, while posing few health risks when used properly.
Like its sister drugs morphine and codeine, methadone is also a potent painkiller.
"When used appropriately by experienced medical practitioners for pain relief, benefits of methadone include fewer side effects, longer lasting pain-relief effect -- and therefore fewer doses needed -- and lower cost," says Mick Ballesteros, co-author of the North Carolina study and a researcher with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Doctors have also turned to methadone as an alternative to the prescription painkiller Oxycontin, which has made headlines by becoming a commonly abused drug on the black market. "A lot of doctors quit prescribing it and switched over to methadone," Goldberger says.
Despite its benefits, patients can easily misuse methadone because the drug remains in the body even after its painkilling effects dwindle, Ballesteros says. "If a patient repeatedly takes large doses when pain returns, the levels of methadone in the body can accumulate to dangerous levels," he adds.
In the North Carolina study, federal and state officials examined deaths from methadone from 1997 to 2001. They report their findings in a letter in the July 2 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
The researchers found 198 cases -- 98 percent among whites -- of deaths attributed to methadone. Only 4 percent of the patients were taking methadone as a treatment for heroin addiction.
In about half the cases, the death records reported where the patients got methadone: 75 percent received it from doctors, and the rest got it illegally.
The researchers found the rates of death due to methadone per 100,000 state residents rose from 0.16 in 1997 to 0.98 in 2001.
In the Florida study, whose results Goldberger released in 2002, there was a 71 percent increase in methadone-related deaths from 2000 to 2001. The drug was found in more autopsied bodies (357) than heroin (328) in 2001.
Methadone misuse appears across demographic groups, Goldberger says, and in many cases the patients appear to be dying because they take the medication with other drugs, like the tranquilizer Xanax.
In North Carolina, however, medical examiners said other drugs contributed to the methadone deaths in only 25 percent of the cases.
The next step is to make sure people understand methadone, which is a "very good medication when used appropriately," Goldberger says. "We need to educate our doctors and educate our patients about use and potential misuse of the medication."
More information
To learn more about methadone's use as a treatment for heroin addiction, try the Australian Drug Foundation. Catch up on the drug's history at Encyclopedia.com.
