METHADONE CAN BE DANGEROUS IF NOT APPROPRIATELY USED-TOO OFTEN, NOT APPROPRIATELY DONE SO: PRESCRIBING, CONSUMING, & LACK OF EDUCATION ABOUT LONG-TERM EFFECTS & RISKS!!!

Prescription Painkiller Overdoses

Use and Abuse of Methadone as a Painkiller

Prescription painkiller overdoses* were responsible for more than 15,500 deaths in 2009. While all prescription painkillers have contributed to an increase in overdose deaths over the last decade, methadone has played a central role in the epidemic. More than 30% of prescription painkiller deaths involve methadone, even though only 2% of painkiller prescriptions are for this drug. Six times as many people died of methadone overdoses in 2009 than a decade before.

Methadone has been used safely and effectively to treat drug addiction for decades. It has been prescribed increasingly as a painkiller because it is a generic drug that can provide long-lasting pain relief. But as methadone’s use for pain has increased, so has nonmedical use of the drug and the number of overdoses.

* "Prescription painkiller overdoses" refers to deaths from using harmful amounts of opioid or narcotic pain relievers, including drugs such as Vicodin (hydrocodone), OxyContin (oxycodone), Opana (oxymorphone), and methadone.