Does methadone make u gain weight

[MaraDnB]

I have heard from many people that methadone makes you gain weight.  the doctor at the clininc and my psychiatrist and my primary care doctor all insit that it doesnt... they say it makes you crave sugar and most people gain the weight because they werent eating right before they started the program, and the done makes you crave sugar.  I need an answer from someone who is actually in the program.  I dont want to hear he said she saids... i need the truth.  I spent 600 dollars on a personal trainer last month and lost 15 pounds and 6% body fat... i dont want that to come back.  HELP
-Mara

[Martinigal]

After reading many of these comments I think I am the only one who is on Methadone to manage the chronic pain of Fibromyalgia.

When I first started it was like a miracle drug.  I've never been high on Methadone, my dose (10 mg am, 5 mg pm) doesn't get me high, but it did put an end to so many of the horrible affects of Fibromyalgia.  I had so much energy and my head became so much clearer.  I got my life back.  I could clean, go grocery shopping, it was amazing.  Of course you'd have to understand the devastation of Fibromyalgia to understand the miracle of getting some control of your life again.

I did, however gain a huge amount of weight on methadone.  And, for the life of me, I can't shed a single pound!  I eat a very healthy diet.  Lots of fish, complex grains and good fats.  I have a very complex medical history, once involving having 4 pulmonary embolisms at once.  This required me to go on a drug called Coumain and to limit my intake of Vitamin K, a natural blood clotter.  Vitamin K is found primarily in leafy green veggies, so this makes it especially hard for me to maintain a balanced diet, but I take many vitamin and mineral supplements to make up for what I can't eat.

So here I am, so incredible unhappy at 240 lbs (5'9"), knowing that if I go off Methadone I will go back to the hell of Fibromyalgia.  I'm not afraid of withdrawl from Methadone, I'm afraid of losing my life again.  Of spending days on end unable to shower, washing my hair, even wake up.  Of my head being so full of fog I no longer read, one of the greates loves in life.

Nothing else came close to the relief I've experienced with methadone.  I will say, after being on it for 9 months, the effects are starting to wain a bit.  I don't have as much energy anymore and my head get's a bit foggy again.  So, do I increase my methadone to get my life back, but surely also gain more weight, or do I just get off it now and spend the rest of my days isolated and in pain?  I feel like it's Sophie's Choice.  There's no good answer.

[Martinigal]

Wow, all caps, you must be really angry.

It is you that has no idea what you're talking about.  I went on Methadone for chronic pain relief.  My history is complex, but I am unable to take other pain relievers and it was either Methadone or continue to lie in bed for the rest  of my life.
As far as all of us piggies just eating sugar all day long, what a joke.  I've gained 80 lbs from Fibromyalgia.  I then lost 40 while I spent 2 stints in the hospital.  Came out of the hospital, started methadone and the 40 lbs came on in 9 months.
I DO NOT eat added sugar.  My diet is very clean, I eat salmon, complex carbohydrates and good fats; ie: olive oil, avocado and coconut oil.  I am unable to exercise because of some very painful tendon disorders which have even affected my feet!
So don't you dare act like a know it all, when your all caps message makes it appear you're lit on something.  This kind of ignorance gets under my skin like nothing else.  I get it from my doctor all the time and it's ********.  Methadone makes some of us gain weight regardless of the healthy clean diets we follow, as well as heavy vitamin and mineral supplementation.
Shut your pie hole!

[tramuser99]

I was given methadone to help taper me off other meds and I can tell you first hand the crap is strong.  When I was on opiates I gained 35lbs and I used to be a gym rat.  In fact I avoided seeing people because I knew if they saw my condition they would know something was wrong with me.  Opiates definitely make you crave sugar, plus its not like they give you motivation for the gym either.  I also got so depressed I developed a food addiction I never had before, I was eating because of being depressed.  

I think maintenance programs are good for certain individuals, basically depending on how you handle depression/stress and what drug you were on.  If you are a former herion user and not willing to go to a inpatient rehab then subs or methadone is better than staying on smack.  However if you are on regular prescription meds I think methadone is just side-stepping the issue.  

[TheGreenMile]

What you need to do to stay/Keep clean is WILLPOWER, all the way, you also need to really WANT it, if u've managed to come off AND stay off the Kit, then you will have the willpower to do it. Good Luck. x

[Matt_C1984]

I'm have very mixed feelings about this issue. On the one hand, I've been on methadone for a year and a half (220 mg now) and have gained 20-30 pounds. Most of that came very quickly, and seems to be extremely hard to lose. That said, the scientist in me knows better than to assume that correlation equaks causation. While it certainly does seem as though most people posting here (myself included) have had significant weight gain which seems completely attributable to our medication, I also notice vast changes in my eating and exercise habits. There's also the fact that methadone is a full mu-opiate receptor agonist just like oxy, heroin or any other drug we've likely been abusing. While addicted to these substances, I lost a lot of weight. It may strongly seem as though methadone alone causes weight gain because of this, but it just doesn't make much sense from a pharmalogical point of view; methadone has no real effect on your body that isn't duplicated by any other opiate.

That said, with this much anecdotal evidence, it's certainly worth rigorous study. It's also very important to find a doctor without a vested interest, and preferably a clinic like this as well. That may be harder in the US where they are always for-profit businesses (excepting insurance) - here in Canada, we get our methadone mostly from any old pharmacy, and it's dispensed just like (and alongside) any other medication. This makes staff less likely to embellish the therapeutic effects of the drug, or minimize the side-effects.

All I know is that so far, methadone has given me my life back. I don't hesitate to say that I would nearly certainly be lying in a box underground now without it. No, it's not for everyone; you need to be very well-informed before initiating maintenance therapy. However if used properly as intended and under competent medical supervision, it can provide a second chance to those people who had all but given up on life. Naturally many people who have quit methadone - recently or not - will be more biased toward reporting negative effects since those are there most recent experiences, and can easily overshadow the years of stability it provided.

[AngieB81]

Liquid or not Methadone WILL NOT rot your teeth. What doctor told you that?  I have been taking Methadone (liquid) for almost 2 years now I never had even one cavity before. Still Don't have the slightest problem with my teeth. Meth mouth is when you are hooked on meth amphetamine. Thats what rots your teeth.