within the last 5 years or so.

It is not an innocuous drug. And many doctors are unaware of its potential.

Also when used for pain management, it is hard to titrate to individuals.
The length of time it remains on pain receptors is shorter than its half life in the body. This means higher doses may be needed for pain relief than for addiction control. Higher doses, combined with other drugs or dehydration with loss of electrolytes make it dangerous for some.

So it has to be handled carefully, and patients screened and informed.

On the plus side, methadone is inexpensive and less likely to cause euphoria and hence drug abuse in long term situations.

While methadone has been dispensed for many years in rehab situations, its full impact was not understood until recently.
here is a CDC report that shows how alarming the increase in poisoning deaths has become:
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/pub...one1999-04.htm

The only way to prevent this alarming trend is to educate patients, so that they insist on their doctor being experienced with methadone treatment.

That CDC report is disturbing.
Altho it did concede the fact that Methadone deaths were not
the greatest of all the deaths categories mentioned.
In fact it was the least.
But the percentage increase for all of them since 1999 was very disturbing.

Mrs. D, I was recently referred to a doctor who specializes in pain management. He swithced me from the fentanyl patch to methadone to see if methadone would be more helpful to me with pain control. He never asked me if I had any heart problems! Or told me about other drugs to avoid! Sheeeesh. I can see where family docs or internests might not know about these studies, but you would think that a pain doc would. At any rate, the metadone was not as efficacious for me and made me too sleepy. I was hoping it would be because it is so cheap. But now I am glad it wasn't.