Methadone: dosage and conversion
- the conversion tables relating to heroin dosage to methadone dosage are of limited value because most illicit opiates are of unknown purity
- also patients may be untruthful about the amount of opiate abused
- therefore, for all patients it is safer to carry out a formal, stabilisation process
Notes:
- for patients who are using other opioids it is sometimes necessary to stabilise them onto methadone or buprenorphine
- it is not possible to accurately predict equivalent doses in most cases. This is especially true for street drugs where purity is notoriously variable. It is also problematic to convert from one drug to another when the half lives are not equivalent.
Reference:
- NICE. Methadone and buprenorphine for the management of opioid dependence. Technology appraisal guidance TA114. Published January 2007, last reviewed February 2016
Related pages
Create an account to add page annotations
Annotations allow you to add information to this page that would be handy to have on hand during a consultation. E.g. a website or number. This information will always show when you visit this page.