The prescription and administration of methadone pain management has brought about numerous cases of fatalities attributable to abuse and dependence, use of excessive dosage, and exposures to it by pregnant women. Hence one might ask: If methadone has addictive effects and is killing not only pain but people, then how come it is still prescribed by many doctors?
Methadone possesses many pharmacologic characteristics that make it undeniably good as a pain management medicine particularly in the management of intense pain associated with cancer. Being a synthetic opioid makes it more affordable yet effectively suppresses pain for a prolonged period. It is a recourse taken when medical interventions cannot anymore seek appropriate solutions for a medical case. It alleviates the pain of patients whose lives may be halted anytime at any day.
Methadone, just like other opioids (morphine and heroin), will always be risky to administer for its addictive nature and must be considered despite benefits and wide preference. For this reason, its administration and use must be done with caution to prevent possible precarious repercussions. When situations like this arise, control becomes impossible and the dangers and complications become more imminent.
The wide use of methadone pain management is in part linked to its affordability, hence making it more reachable for many patients. For this reason, it has been unconsciously abused by many prescribers for relief even of milder and common pain. And for the same reason, prescription became easy to come by making regulation more difficult and leading to many notable cases of deaths. The medical value of methadone pain management must be re-evaluated as its wide use has already generated indiscriminate uses causing an alarming rise in mortalities. This alarming state of affairs calls for urgent regulation to curtail more abuses and mortalities.
Methadone was created for a purpose. It is of paramount importance that actions be taken to protect the benefits of methadone that may be jeopardized by the recklessness of other prescribers and users. Vigilance must be exercised so that it will only be able to kill what it was intended for-pain.
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