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Methadone Overdose

Tarzana Treatment Centers offers specialized drug treatment programs to address the various aspects of methadone addiction and recovery. If you already know that you or a loved one needs help, please call us for drug treatment at 888-777-8565 or contact us by email here. If you need more information, read below.

Methadone Overdose

While methadone is effective in relieving moderate to severe pain, there is a high overdose risk and it can be deadly when used in conjunction with other prescription drugs. This is methadone abuse and a sign of methadone addiction.

From Drug Interactions

For example, a person may be taking a benzodiazepine (Valium, Xanax, etc) for anxiety, and then suffers a back injury that causes severe pain. A doctor who may be unaware of the other medication that person is taking prescribes methadone. The side effects to the patient could include severely lowered blood pressure, overdose risk, damage to vital organs, among several others including death.

From Multiple Doses

Absent of other medications, there is a danger of overdose for pain patients. While a methadone dosage will relieve a patient of pain for 8 to 12 hours, it can remain in the body for 24 to 59 hours. If the patient is unaware of this fact, he could take up to 4 methadone doses, simply to relieve pain, and be completely unaware that he is killing himself.

While this is an extreme example, methadone treatment overdoses among pain suffering patients are on the rise. Methadone overdoses are a warning sign that alternatives should be explored for pain relief. The first step is medical detoxification from methadone and drug treatment to stop the addiction cycle.

Contact us

Tarzana Treatment Centers offers specialized drug treatment programs to address the various aspects of methadone addiction and recovery, including drug detox. Please call us at 888-777-8565 or contact us by email here.

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