Question about methadone

[redblue]

Does methadone really take away the effects of other narcotics - for instance, if a person took methadone along with vicoden - would they not feel the vicoden?  Do people actually get addicted to methadone?  

I'm just curious because a close friend of mine who suffers from chronic pain is on methadone prescribed by a pain doctor and the doctor also prescribes her vicoden for breakthru pain.  She used to be on oxycontin for chronic pain before methadone and she says methadone does nothing for her except make her tired and when she was on oxy, she was energetic.  Is that common to be energetic from oxycontin and have the totally opposite effect from methadone?  She siad she wants to go back on oxycontin but I am scared to death for her because when she used to be on it, she would take more and more and Im afraid she is going to do that again if the doctor puts her back on oxy.  With methadone she has no desire to take more and more.

[jonnybeware]

...sorry, didn't answer the addiction question. Yes, methadone is very addictive. Just read the other entries... jonnyb

[jonnybeware]

Hi redblue,
I also take methadone and vico for chronic pain management. Here's what I've determined...
When talking about opiate effects, you need to specify the pain killing effect, versus the buzz effect. Heroin has a huge buzz effect. Methadone doesn't, but has a great painkilling effect. So yes, methadone tends to muffle the buzz of other opiates, but not necessarily the pain killing effect. So the doc uses the meth for basic pain killing, and the vico for the pain that does a razzle-dazzle around the end. Also, methadone has a long up and down effect time range, so doesn't cause the craving that other faster acting opiates do. That's what makes it good for long term management.
I have found meth to do a great job of keeping me functional through the day, but also tends to make me sleep abnormally long if I don't 'force' myself up every day. I joined this forum to maybe see how to get off of methadone, because I hate the idea of being a slave to a medication... what if my doc dies and I can't refill? What if I get incarcerated for a week? I don't like that monkey-on-my-back feeling. Anyways, thanks for listening!
jonnyb