From 1999 to 2005, the use of methadone in the U.S. increased more than five-fold, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. But over the same time period, deaths associated with the drug have increased more than five times, climbing from 786 in 1999 to 4,462, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Methadone is commonly given to people trying to kick a heroin addiction. But the long-lasting opioid is also an inexpensive, effective pain-killer. With rising costs of prescription narcotics like OxyContin, doctors are increasingly prescribing methadone to treat pain, especially to patients on Medicaid or less generous health insurance plans.
Methadone's pain-killing effects last only four to eight hours, but it stays in the body much longer; studies have put the high end of its half-life between 59 and 128 hours. That means the pharmaceutical's dangers – specifically, its ability to depress and eventually paralyze the ...
