I was on the methadone due to my addiction before I found out about my cancer. The methadone maintenance treatment for addiction is continued at the usual dose and date. My cancer doctor wants me to stay on methadone for pain relief and I was wondering what dose would work for cancer to take the pain away. Relatively high doses of opioid medication (for example morphine and methadone) may be needed for good pain control. It may be used for pain control in those plus receiving methadone maintenance for addiction. that question was submitted to our website and we thought it might be helpful for a larger audience (all names and personal references have been removed to protect confidentiality):

Q: I was taking methadone when I was recently diagnosed with Cancer. The only way the physician can tell whether your pain is adequately treated is whether you tell the physician.

If your cancer doctor is unable to treat your pain adequately, you should desire a consultation with a pain management specialist or palliative care doctor. Methadone is a very strong pain medication and is often used to treat cancer pain. Everyone is different and different doses

of the same medication for different patients with the same type of pain may be needed. whether so, additional methadone is given for pain several times a day for the control of pain. As far as I am concerned methadone is not working to relieve my pain. whether you could tell me whether methadone can be used for pain relief of cancer patients it would be great.

A: Unfortunately many physicians think the daily methadone maintenance dose taken to treat addiction provides adequate pain relief all through the day when it does not.

Whether or not methadone is used to treat your pain, the methadone maintenance dose should be continued. There is no upper dosage limit of medication which can be used as expanded as dangerous side effects such as drowsiness, muscle twitching or seizures do not occur. The medication given for pain should be started at the high end of the recommended starting dose and increased by your doctor as needed. The methadone maintenance dose used to treat addiction usually will not supply pain relief, but whether it does the pain relief will not last very lengthy.

Original post by RGNewman, MD