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Originally Posted by KathyMac  I've been reading through some of the latest threads and there have been some that talk about going from one med to another. This is sort of a technical question but I am curious: I was on Methadone for almost 2 years before the doc switched me to the Duragesic Patch (100) last month. I know that duragesic (fentanyl) is not an opiode antagonist like suboxine/subutex (sp?). My understanding though is that the methadone that I was on was an opiode antagonist. If I were to take a methadone dose while on Duragesic, (not that i'm going to..I promise!!) would the methadone then throw me into withdrawals? I hope my question is clearer to you, the reader, than it is to me...the writer! Thanks for any input. KathyMac |
KathyMac,
I'm really glad you promised you weren't going to do this because IMHO it's a real bad idea. Methadone is not an antagonist. It is a full opioid agonist, with properties that tend to negate the high other opioids bring and also tends to mitigate tolerance better than other opioids.
But methadone is a beast unto itself and based on my limited knowledge, I would never attempt such a thing. Once one has been on another opioid and gets switched to methadone it's not surprising to learn that the starting dose of methadone is much, much smaller than the dose of the previous opioid because of incomplete cross tolerance. In English, it takes much less (in mg dosage) methadone to manage chronic pain in one being switched from another opioid. It would also take much less methadone in mg to overdose.
I expect it would be a real dangerous thing to try.
steve
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