Medicines Methadone

Morphine, when extracted from raw opium and treated chemically, yields the semisynthetic narcotics hydromorphone, oxymorphone, oxycodone, and heroin. Heroin is an illegal narcotic in the United States and is not used in medicine. Synthetic narcotics are those man-made analgesics with properties and actions similar to the natural opioids. Examples of synthetic narcotic analgesics are methadone, levorphanol, remifen-tanil, and meperidine Additional narcotics are listed in the Summary Drug Table Narcotic Analgesics. 

Morphine was known to the Sumerians and Egyptians as a very valuable pain killer in medicine it is also a powerful narcotic that is habit forming. A great deal of effort has been spent in finding a derivative of morphine that has its good properties, and less of its bad properties. Then, in 1944, demerol and methadone were discovered, which are even more powerful than morphine, but bear no structural relation to morphine. The leading theory now is that both morphine and methadone have the same T-shape, and may fit the receptor. 

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Dole VP, Robinson JW, Orraca J, Towns E, Searcy P Caine E (1969). Methadone treatment of randomly selected criminal addicts. New England Journal of Medicine, 280, 1372-5... 

Kosten TR, Rounsaville BJ Kleber HD (1985). Parental alcoholism in opioid addicts. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 173, 461-9 Kott A, Habel E Nottingham W (2001). Analysis of behavioral patterns in five cohorts of patients retained in methadone maintenance programs. The Mount Sinai Journal of Medicine, 68, 46-54 Krabbe PF, Koning JPF, Heinen N, Laheij RJF, Victory Van Cauter RM De Jong CAJ... 

Methadone is a synthetic opioid narcotic, discovered in Germany in 1939. Its original name was Ami-don, and it was used mainly as a pain reliever. After the conclusion of World War II, Eli Lilly and other American pharmaceutical companies began clinical trials of the medication, renamed methadone, and also began commercial production. Its original uses in the United States were for pain control and as a component of cough medicine. 

Besides its use in treating illegal opiate addiction, methadone is occasionally used in other areas of medicine. All of the opiates, including methadone, are powerful pain control medications. Since pain is one of the most frequent, and least well-managed, aspects of cancer care, physicians often use multiple medications to try to control cancer pain. Methadone can be given in 20 mg tablets or by intramuscular injection every four to six hours to control moderate to severe cancer pain. Methadone is often used when there is a desire to let the patient sleep because of its high sedating properties. 

Methadone and opiates were first used for pain relief, and are still chiefly used in that area of medicine. It is important to remember that methadone and other opiates do not exert their pain control by altering a person s sensitivity to pain. Rather, methadone and other opiates interfere with the transmission of pain impulses from the nervous system to the brain. They accomplish this by a variety of methods. First, they decrease the transmission of nerve signals that conduct pain messages from various parts of the body to the spine. Secondly, they prevent production of neurochemicals that transfer this pain information to the spine. Finally, they mimic the actions of endorphins, which are the body s own pain-controlling chemicals. While methadone and other opiates work quite well to control pain, they do not affect touch, vision, or hearing. 

Semisynthetic and synthetic narcotics are also produced that have opiate-like effects these narcotics are collectively known as opioids. They include methadone and the designer drug fentanyl, and a number of commonly prescribed medicines such as Darvon, Demerol, Dilaudid, Orlaam, OxyContin, Percodan, Talwin, and Vicodin. 

In Table 8 the drugs are listed which have been found in hair, not belonging to one of the groups above. Ishiyama et al. detected tricyclic antidepressants in hair and discussed the possibility to determine definitely if patients are under a longterm treatment of medicines. Pentazocine was abused by a medical doctor and could be detected by hair analysis. In patients under methadone treatment, hair analysis perhaps may show a dose-related concentration. Kintz et al. ° detected several... 

Opiates are compounds extracted from the milky latex contained in the unripe seed pods of the opium poppy (Papaver somniferum). Opium, morphine, and codeine are the most important opiate alkaloids found in the opium poppy. Opium was used as folk medicine for hundreds, perhaps thousands of years. In the seventeenth century opium smoking led to major addiction problems. In the first decade of the nineteenth century, morphine was isolated from opium. About 20 years later, codeine, one-fifth as strong as morphine, was isolated from both opium and morphine. In 1898, heroin, an extremely potent and addictive derivative of morphine was isolated. The invention of the hypodermic needle during the mid-nineteenth century allowed opiates to be delivered directly into the blood stream, which increases the effects of these drugs. Synthetically produced drugs with morphine-like properties are called opioids. The terms narcotic, opiate, and opioid are frequently used interchangeably. Some common synthetically produced opioids include meperidine (its trade name is Demerol) and methadone, a drug often used to treat heroin addiction. 

Opioids cause a release of endorphins producing a feeling of pleasure. Examples of abuse include heroin, a highly addictive opioid that metabolizes to morphine and readily passes into the brain producing an immediate euphoria. Pharmaceutical or medicinal abused opioids include oxycontin, hydrocodone, codeine, methadone, and propoxyphene. 

Naltrexone (25 mg initially), a pure narcotic antagonist, is indicated for the treatment of the opioid-free state in formerly opioid-dependent individuals who have undergone a methadone detoxification program. Patients taking naltrexone may not benefit from opioid-containing medicines, such as cough and cold preparations, antidiarrheal preparations, and opioid analgesics. 

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