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Posted by: J Miller on 2012-01-10, 19:10:50
Your father in law is being taken down way, way too fast. Taking him down 20mg, more than a third of his dose, in a week is nothing short of crazy and it's beyond me why his doctor would do that. If he keeps going down this fast it will get worse and worse and he will eventually get seriously sick for weeks. Methadone withdrawal is like any opiate withdrawal (like heroin, oxycontin, etc.) but it lasts much longer. The only way to avoid that horrible sickness is to reduce the dose very slowly over a longer period of time. When methadone clinics, that treat people for addiction, taper people off methadone they normally decrease the dose by 2-5mg/ week or less. When the dose gets lower, like in the single digits it's reduced 1mg at the time. A taper from 50mg should take no less than 3-4 months, preferably more. The slower the better. Sadly there is no way to get off methadone quickly without extreme drawn out suffering. I've gone through opiate withdrawal and I can assure you that there are few things that are worse. I'd rather get my teeth pulled without anesthesia while having the flu than go through withdrawal. I highly recommend that your father in law talks to his doctor and ask to slow down the taper. Ideally he should go back up a bit and stay there for a couple of weeks or stay where he is for a couple of weeks and restabilize to stop the symptoms he's currently having. Then start tapering slowly. If his doctor is not willing to help him with that he should find a new doctor or turn to a methadone clinic for a detox. If he doesn't he will regret it and if his health is poor to begin with he could even put his health at risk. I understand that your FIL probably wants off the methadone quickly but he gains nothing by doing that. He can either spend 4-5 months tapering or spend that amount of time sick. There are medications that can help the symptoms a bit that he can take if he chooses to continue this fast taper. Clonodine is commonly used. It lowers the blood pressure and helps the restlessness and sometimes the sweating. Phenergan can help nausea. Ambien helps sleep. Xanax or valium can help anxiety. Imodium helps diarrhea. Eating and drinking right is very important. If he has energy to exercise that can also help. A supplement called Black Cohosh is claimed by some to help too. Good luck! |
