Thanks for reading and commenting. To answer your questions as best I can:

1. I know hundreds of people on methadone and the need for split dosing is not that uncommon. I wouldn’t call it weird at all.

I’m not a medical doctor. But there is an answer to your medical question by a great doctor here:

http://www.methadonetoday.org/doctips.htm#Serum

2. Muscle aches are a symptom of withdrawal. Since you say you experience the leg pains when your methadone is wearing off and you are also getting other symptoms of withdrawal, it seems reasonable to conclude that the leg pains are related to your withdrawal. It doesn’t sound like your doctor has offered a better explanation. And I must say it sounds like your doctor is in denial (a little recovery humor there) about the fact that your current dose and dosing schedule is not adequately treating you. Well, if you aren’t going into withdrawal then what’s causing these symptoms, huh doc?

3. Your body will eventually adjust to a lower methadone dose or no dose at all to the extent that you won’t be in acute physical withdrawal. But some withdrawal symptoms last a long time, and more importantly you won’t be getting the treatment benefits of methadone. My concern would be that what will interfere with school at that point is not symptoms of acute withdrawal but unmanageable cravings or relapse. So my question to you is why are you tapering in the first place? Your goal is not to be on the lowest possible methadone dose, but to be on the most effective dose (check out that link, I think you will find the information helpful). Of course, if you do switch to Suboxone, this should prevent withdrawal symptoms if you are at an effective dose (keeping in mind that for some people it is hard to reach an effective dose with Suboxone for the reason mentioned in this post). I get the impression that this taper is doctor imposed more than something you want to do yourself. Has your doctor provided a reason as to why she thinks it’s a good idea for you to taper off of methadone –or why she thinks Suboxone would be a better fit for you?

4. It is true that to switch from methadone to Suboxone you will need to taper down to 30mg and wait a few days after your last methadone dose before you start Suboxone. Your doctor could switch you from methadone to a shorter acting opiate like morphine before transitioning you to Suboxone, and then you would only need to wait 24 hours instead of 3 days. I don’t have enough information to have an opinion about whether you should switch to Suboxone. I would ask your doctor for her reasoning and see if it makes sense to you. Let me know what she says and I’ll try to help you think it through.

Also, it doesn’t sound like you go to a methadone clinic, so is part of what this doctor is treating you for pain?

Hang in there…it’s worth figuring this out and getting it right.

Tom

i am 21 years old and i have been on methadone for about 3 years after injecting OxyContin, Hydromorphone, Morphine Etc.

I went upto about 85 MG but had to start splitting my dose, half when i woke up and half around 4pm, because it was wearing off very quickly. my doctor didnt believe me it was wearing off so fast, i have had two different methadone doctors and they said it was impossible.

i have since begun to taper, one 1mg every two weeks, with frequent pauses. it has been about 1 yr, and i am now at 62mg. I am starting to really feel withdrawl symptoms, constant sweating, sensitivity to cold, watering eyes, and EXTREME leg pain ( i have had to leave my university classes a few times beacause of it).

my questions are 1) is it weird how fast my methadone is wearing off, a methadone therapist i once spoke too said some people have a lack of or over abundance of an enzyme in their body that increases methadone metabolization, but my doctor didnt seem to know what i was talking about/care to test it.

2) my doctor doesnt think the leg pains are related to the methadone, even though i only started getting them when i first felt withdrawl from opiates after my first oxycontin binge, and i get them when my methadone starts to wear off (which is now 2-3 hours after i take my dose). are leg pains common?

3) if i am feeling so crappy at 62mg what am i going to do when i get to 10mg, i feel like i will be incapacitated and not be able to go to school. am i right?

4)my doctor suggested switching to suboxone, but she said i can only do it when i am down to 30mg and have stopped taking my methdone for 3 days so i dont go into withdrawls. is that true and should i switch?

thanks for your great site and sorry for the long post.

-Alex

Methadone withdrawal symptoms do tend to be more severe than buprenorphine withdrawal symptoms. But the solution is to taper off of methadone slowly so that the withdrawal is gradual. Both medications have worked miracles for thousands of people, and we are lucky to have them. Tom