Methadone potential advantages

The profile of buprenorphine has been discussed in Chapter 2, a partial opioid agonist and partial antagonist with several potential advantages as a direct alternative to methadone. The prominence which the medication has reached within treatment, actually in about the time since the first edition of this book, has also been referred to at several points, and as... 

Although it is more toxic than morphine on a weight basis, methadone is more potent. On resolving the racemic compound, the (-) form was found to possess most of the opioid activities. The dextrorotatory isomer retains basically only the antitussive property (the commercial product is the racemic form). The potential advantages of methadone over morphine is its effectiveness via the oral route and considerably longer half-life (24-36 vs. 2- hours). This feature, particularly, has led to the drug s extensive use in the treatment of heroin addicts to suppress the latters abstinence syndrome by maintenance of patients with methadone only. 

The potential direct advantages which buprenorphine may have over methadone are indicated in Table 2.1. 

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