Wishdoctor79
Bluelighter
- Joined
- Apr 27, 2018
- Messages
- 104
I can't find any psychopharmacology sources which are helpful in explaining the hows and whys of the magical effect that daily bolus dosing of 80+ mg oral methadone has on many in the clinic system, those lucky individuals who feel happier and healthier on MMT than they've ever felt.
The anti-drug proponents are very vocal and it seems to be that the stigma which results from that viewpoint might be suppressing research into how exactly methadone heals whatever it was that made MMT patients seek out opiates in what is always eventually a failed self-prescription that did more harm to them than good. Not so for methadone, for which many of those people choose to endure the indignities of the clinic system sometimes for the rest of their natural lives. Sure, many drop out because they gain weight or can't handle the constipation and sweating, or it's just too much of an incovenience or indignity, but methadone itself for those in whom it works is a very good medicine. It's especially so for the many people with the so-called treatment-resistant depression because methadone if I'm given a choice between periodic ECT sessions a few times a year whenever it gets really bad, or enrolling in MMT and getting as much as I want of methadone and preventing the suicidal depression, guess which one I picked. Maybe if there had been a book such as I want to write it would have not taken me so long to get into a treatment that worked instead of continuing my misusing opiates and benzos and whatever for the entire 8 years I was enrolled in the Suboxone clinic run by aprofessor at a medical school who was teaching addiction medicine at the time. Suboxone is not the same as methadone, no matter how loudly the Suboxone chauvinists will proclaim it. After I went on methadone all of that previous drug collecting and drug misusing came to a complete and almost immediate stop.
I have benefited tremendously from my past four years on methadone, but I can't find one book written in a memoir style where the author paints a positive picture of MMT. Fifty years of strong data on safety and effectiveness after Dole & Nyswander and over 100,000 patients at any time enrolled in US clinic system based on their model and set up per the 1970 Drug Abuse Treatment Act there is not even one such published memoir that I can find in the English language.
I can't tell this story in a book worthy of publication unless I can cite some scientific bases for my observations.
I have basically two theories about why methadone is fundamentally superior to other opioids: 1) it has something to do with the NMDA antagonism some have attributed to methadone, and 2) it has something to do with a biologically active metabolite of methadone which somehow or other has beneficial effects on the human body.
I can't find any research on inter-individual variations in methadone metabolism and the impact of active metabolites on treatment retention, etc. All they seem to say is that some metabolize it faster and may require twice-daily ("split") dosing, but nobody has looked into the details besides coming up with a blood test protocol to decide if the person is lying when they come in and ask for splt dosing or say they need a daily dose greater than a very arbitrary limit e.g. 150 or 200 mg.
Please try to prove me wrong by pointing me towards things I've been unable to find on my own.
The anti-drug proponents are very vocal and it seems to be that the stigma which results from that viewpoint might be suppressing research into how exactly methadone heals whatever it was that made MMT patients seek out opiates in what is always eventually a failed self-prescription that did more harm to them than good. Not so for methadone, for which many of those people choose to endure the indignities of the clinic system sometimes for the rest of their natural lives. Sure, many drop out because they gain weight or can't handle the constipation and sweating, or it's just too much of an incovenience or indignity, but methadone itself for those in whom it works is a very good medicine. It's especially so for the many people with the so-called treatment-resistant depression because methadone if I'm given a choice between periodic ECT sessions a few times a year whenever it gets really bad, or enrolling in MMT and getting as much as I want of methadone and preventing the suicidal depression, guess which one I picked. Maybe if there had been a book such as I want to write it would have not taken me so long to get into a treatment that worked instead of continuing my misusing opiates and benzos and whatever for the entire 8 years I was enrolled in the Suboxone clinic run by aprofessor at a medical school who was teaching addiction medicine at the time. Suboxone is not the same as methadone, no matter how loudly the Suboxone chauvinists will proclaim it. After I went on methadone all of that previous drug collecting and drug misusing came to a complete and almost immediate stop.
I have benefited tremendously from my past four years on methadone, but I can't find one book written in a memoir style where the author paints a positive picture of MMT. Fifty years of strong data on safety and effectiveness after Dole & Nyswander and over 100,000 patients at any time enrolled in US clinic system based on their model and set up per the 1970 Drug Abuse Treatment Act there is not even one such published memoir that I can find in the English language.
I can't tell this story in a book worthy of publication unless I can cite some scientific bases for my observations.
I have basically two theories about why methadone is fundamentally superior to other opioids: 1) it has something to do with the NMDA antagonism some have attributed to methadone, and 2) it has something to do with a biologically active metabolite of methadone which somehow or other has beneficial effects on the human body.
I can't find any research on inter-individual variations in methadone metabolism and the impact of active metabolites on treatment retention, etc. All they seem to say is that some metabolize it faster and may require twice-daily ("split") dosing, but nobody has looked into the details besides coming up with a blood test protocol to decide if the person is lying when they come in and ask for splt dosing or say they need a daily dose greater than a very arbitrary limit e.g. 150 or 200 mg.
Please try to prove me wrong by pointing me towards things I've been unable to find on my own.
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