Random methadone withdrawals after being on steady dose.

Hey all.
I have been on methadone for roughly 4 years. Tapered from 90mg down to 25mg which I have been stable on for almost 6 months. Just about a week ago I began feeling mild w/d symptoms that last the entire day. Not enough to get in the way of my day to day tasks but enough to be uncomfortable and irritable. 3 hours after dosing the feeling comes on and lasts the entire day. Any ideas?

That's strange since you should be at peak plasma levels 3 hours after dosing. Have you started taking any kind of stimulants recently? Been more active than normal? You could try drinking white grapefruit juice to try and potentate the methadone. Personally I would go up 5mg and see if the problem subsides.

Yeah it is strange. No other meds. I haven't changed caffeine intake or made any changes to my diet. The ONLY thing I can think of is that I have smoked pot 10-12 times over the past 3 weeks or so. However that never gave me an issue in the past when I used to smoke.

You should probably taper off fully if you feel up to it.

The withdrawal symptoms are likely because you are tolerant to some of the drug's effects.

Other than being uncomfortable and irritable, what else is going on?

Working on stepping off. Saving up vacation at work to do so.
Not sure why after so long at a stable dose it just started happening. Like I said it is very mild. It's the constant yawning, random tingling in my arms and hands, etc.

gentlemansyd said:

Working on stepping off. Saving up vacation at work to do so.
Not sure why after so long at a stable dose it just started happening. Like I said it is very mild. It's the constant yawning, random tingling in my arms and hands, etc.

Click to expand...

Very peculiar.

Glad to hear of your plans for jumping off eventually, and best of luck

You can report the symptoms to your MMT clinic/doctor, hopefully they can look into it and perhaps any other possible causes of the symptoms.