Opioids Help! Quick Methadone Plan/Taper

[Numb19]

Hi, I'm hoping someone with some methadone experience can help please?

For someone who uses approximately 1g/day of heroin (powder, insufflated), what would be a good relatively 'painless' quick taper if they had 330mg at their disposal?

Is this reasonable?

Day 1 75mg
Day 2 65mg
Day 3 55mg
Day 4 45mg
Day 5 35mg
Day 6 25mg
Day 7 15mg
Day 8 10mg
Day 9 5mg
jump

Or...

Has anyone ever heard of the "3 Dose Method"? Basically:

Day 1 75mg (12hrs after last H dose)
Day 2 75mg (24hrs after first methadone dose)
Day 3 75mg (24hrs after second methadone dose)
jump (the 3-day stack is supposed to be enough to carry one through the rest of the way)???

I have heard some people swear by this but was only able to find one reference to this online:

https://opiated.wordpress.com/2007/03/26/how-to-kick-a-habit-easily-with-zero-discomfort/

Can anyone please provide some insight or advice here...thx from the Numb one (nine)!

 

[Keif' Richards]

I think your taper strategy is sound and will do a great deal in lessening the suffering of withdrawal, compared to say, just a regular cold-turkey, non-medicated withdrawal, but don't ever expect the process to be painless, or you will be in for a rude awakening. I've never heard of or tried the "3 dose method" before, so I'm not going to comment on it. All I know is again, that it will be more effective in mitigating suffering than if you were to go Cold Turkey.

I think if you stick to your plan as you have laid it out here, you could save yourself a ton of grief and pain. Just don't deviate and take more than you originally planned. This is the most common pitfall for those of us who have designed our own taper protocols; we always want more that what's allotted for the day. The key will be self-control. So to answer your question, I think you've got a good strategy going for yourself. Good luck.

Something I forgot to add that I always noticed, there's a huge difference between having absolutely nothing in your body and a little bit when you're in withdrawal. For a lot of people, the last few milligrams of Methadone are some of the hardest, as their body adjusts to having zero Opioids. For this reason, you might want to save a few milligrams of Methadone so you can take 5mg-10mg for up to a week. This will definitely give you a nice landing pad.

 

[crzydiamond]

Your plan is similar to what some detoxes do, although they don't start as high as 75 mg. i probably wouldn't either if I were you. They tend to start around 30 which I think may be low for you. I would say start your taper at around 50 mg...

Like this:
Day 1: 50
Day 2: 45
Day 3: 40
Day 4: 35
Day 5: 30
Day 6: 25
Day 7: 20
Day 8: 15
Day 9: 10
Day 10:7.5 (or 7 if you can't measure precisely)
Day 11:5
Day 12:2.5
Day 13:nothing
Day 14:2.5 if needed
Day 15:nothing
Day 16: see if you need any...

This taper plan still leaves you with around 20-30 mg if needed at the end

Methadone's half life makes the end a little wonky, you may jump and be good for a day then find you are not good the second day when it wears off...so what the above poster said makes sense as far as keeping some in case you feel like crap one day.

--------

I have not heard of a 3 day stacking dose for methadone , but I have for buprenorphine, and it's probably the same principle. It relies on the long drawn out half lives sort of cushioning your wd. I have no personal experience with that though

I have experience however with detoxing methadone (both cold turkey and tapering) and also using methadone to get off heroin.


Good luck to you

 

[CBDizzle]

I don't think your taper plan is that great, bud... Sorry, but going down 10mg's a day is tuff. But, so is quitting a gram a day of powdered heroin!!!
I think that not only is your 10mg titrate too much, but you also plan to take it for 9 days... That's long enough to get another dependance issue with methadone (which isn't bad if it gets you off heroin and gets your life back to a functioning state, even if you have to take it forever!).
I think 5 days is good to try and jump off. Make sure to save a couple for like day 2 or 3 three of clean, cuz as mentioned, the half-life of methadone is like 24 hours, so you may feel fine for a couple of days, then it will hit you hard. Just make sure to not take more than 5 or 10 mg's when that happens, cuz you don't want to take steps backwards, right? I'm not gonna give you a specific taper plan, cuz I don't know how your body works. But even if the heroin you're getting is only 30% pure, that means that you are taking 300mg's of heroin each day. Compare that to 30mg's of methadone and anyone. with experience will tell you that is a friggin joke. You will need more like the amount you suggested for the first day (75mg's). That might be enough and it may not, everyone is different. Supposedly, here is what the Center for Disease and Prevention said: "Decrease by increments of 10% of your daily dose every 1-2 weeks until you reach 1/3 of the original dose. At that point begin tapering methadone at half the previous rate."
Now, you probably can't do that but it should give you an idea of how slowly methadone should be decreased. But, you haven't been on it long, so that's an advantage...but, you also have been on heroin, which is a disadvantage.
Here is where I got the quote from the Center for D. & P., you may want to read all of it, there are a couple of good points in there. And, most importantly, keep a positive attitude and eat lots of quality fruits and vegetables, even a multivitamin if your tummy can handle it. Here's that source:
http://opiateaddictionsupport.com/tapering-methadone-tips-success/
Peace out and stay strong, brother...

 

[Numb19]

I found an old post about this...what do you think about this method? Could it work well?

http://www.bluelight.org/vb/threads/624815-Short-term-Heroin-detox-using-Methadone-Amazing-Results!
...I went to the local methadone clinic and they put me on 35mg of Methadone. When I looked online it said Methadone can take anywhere from 5 days to 2 weeks or more to get out of your system depending on frequency of use, weight, etc. So I knew I couldn't do the full 21 days of detox the clinic recommended. Anyways, I only went to the clinic for four days and had absolutely no withdrawals for those four days and four days after. On day five I had the slightest amount of back "tenseness" that was a little annoying. It is now day 7 and I have no withdrawals whatsoever! No trouble sleeping, no soreness, no nothing! Has anyone else tried this? I'm in shock how good I have felt through all...