If your side effects are severe (e.g., difficulty breathing or swallowing, extreme drowsiness, etc.), call 911 immediately. Your body will let you know by generating a number of uncomfortable, often severe symptoms. Methadone works by specifically targeting a type of opioid receptor known as a mu receptor. A 2009 research review explains the mu receptor appears to be specifically related to the body’s reward process. Used for thousands of years as a form of pain relief, opium eventually gave rise to commercial medications, like morphine and fentanyl. Methadone detox is safest and most efficient when completed in a drug treatment facility or hospital.
A woman who is thinking of stopping methadone treatment due to breastfeeding or pregnancy concerns should speak with her doctor first. You may need to be monitored for low blood pressure, breathing problems, and sedation. Do not crush, dissolve, snort, or inject methadone oral tablets because this may cause you to overdose.
Symptoms of overdose may include the following:
- Physical symptoms like nausea, runny nose and body aches usually resolve within the first week or two.
- Our goal is to provide you with clear, compassionate, and evidence-based information about methadone withdrawal, including its signs, symptoms, timeline, and management strategies.
- Patients prescribed methadone often adjust their dosage independently, which is highly risky, as the potency of a single dose makes it easy to overdose on methadone.
The symptoms can range from mild to severe, with the most severe being life-threatening. Methadone withdrawal is just one step on the journey to recovery. Long-term success depends on ongoing support, treatment, and a commitment to healing—physically, mentally, and emotionally.
- Exact timelines for methadone withdrawal are difficult to establish due to the drug’s unpredictable reaction with individual biochemistry.
- Like other opiates, methadone works through a chemical binding process in the central nervous system (CNS) and brain.
- Do not take other medicines unless they have been discussed with your doctor.
Methadone Withdrawal Symptoms, Timeline & Treatment
Below is a list of medications that can interact with methadone. This list doesn’t contain all drugs that may interact with X drug. The use of drinks that contain alcohol can increase your risk of sedation, slowed breathing, coma (being unconscious for a long time), and death from methadone. Methadone comes as an oral tablet, oral dispersible tablet (tablet that can be dissolved in liquid), oral concentrate solution, and oral solution.
What to Expect in Methadone Detox and Withdrawal?
Although certain medicines should not be used together at all, in other cases two different medicines may be used together even if an interaction might occur. In these cases, your doctor may want to change the dose, or other precautions may be necessary. When you are taking this medicine, it is especially important that your healthcare professional know if you are taking any of the medicines listed below. The following interactions have been selected on the basis of their potential significance and are not necessarily all-inclusive. Stopping any opioid cold turkey is likely to be painful and lead to relapse. The withdrawal symptoms for methadone are generally the same as other opioids, though may last longer.
What is alcohol withdrawal?
In some cases, it may take longer for withdrawal to resolve completely. This rapid displacement causes the opioid receptors to become partially activated much faster than they would during natural withdrawal. The brain, suddenly deprived of the full opioid effect it has become accustomed to, reacts by unleashing a cascade of severe withdrawal symptoms.
- Some people are simply genetically predisposed to longer withdrawal experiences.
- This medicine may cause sleep-related breathing problems (eg, sleep apnea, sleep-related hypoxemia).
- Cannabis withdrawal lasts 1-2 weeks for most people, with mild symptoms including sleep issues and irritability.
- Whether you’ve been prescribed methadone for opioid dependency or for pain relief, withdrawal symptoms can occur as you taper off this medication.
- Any intense methadone withdrawal symptoms can be avoided by tapering down from methadone over several months and with medical supervision.
How does methadone affect the body?
When your body is dependent on a medication, your body can’t function normally without it. If you take a lower dose or try to stop taking the medication, you’ll likely experience withdrawal symptoms. If your body has become dependent on another opioid medication, your healthcare team may prescribe methadone to help you break that cycle of dependency. Methadone is an opioid medication that’s used to treat severe pain. It’s also commonly used to treat dependence to other opioids, like oxycodone and heroin. Benzodiazepine withdrawal requires special attention due to its potential severity and duration.
Costs of Treatment Services
Check with your doctor before taking any of the other medicines listed above while you are using this medicine. Once a patient decides to stop methadone, they are usually very eager. However, a gradual methadone taper helps minimize any withdrawal symptoms and cravings. When it came to the United States, doctors used it to treat people with extreme pain.
Each hour you push through is a stride toward overcoming your substance use. Refine Recovery is where clinical excellence meets methadone withdrawal timeline concierge-level service, supporting clients across the country with the highest standard of care. Talk to your doctor about other drug options that may work for you. You or your pharmacy will have to contact your doctor for a new prescription if you need this medication refilled. If you develop these symptoms, call 911 or go to the nearest emergency room. The safety and effectiveness of this drug hasn’t been established in children.
During treatment, the baby may be irritable and hard to soothe. Skin-to-skin care, swaddling, gentle rocking, and breastfeeding can help alcoholism treatment calm the baby. Do not drink alcohol or use over-the-counter medicines that contain alcohol. The combination of methadone and alcohol may cause life-threatening breathing problems.
Tapering off Methadone To Reduce Withdrawal
Because of the potential for complications and differences from person to person, medical detox is the safest course of action for methadone withdrawal. A medical detox program will provide a calm and stable place where the focus is on healing and recovery. Health care professionals can monitor vital signs and determine the best methods for allowing the drug to process out of the brain safely. For most people, acute methadone withdrawal symptoms resolve within 10 days of quitting the medication. Since methadone is a long-acting opioid, most people will experience the first methadone withdrawal symptoms within 30 hours (more or less) after their last dose. In the beginning, methadone withdrawal can feel no different than the flu.
