Weight Gain and Edema on Methadone Maintenance Therapy

Abstract

Methadone HCl is currently legally dispensed to approximately 80,000 heroin addicts in the United States. It is widely heralded as being virtually free from other than narcotic side effects. This report describes in detail three patients with massive fluid gain in a population of 420 addicts treated at the Hope Center methadone program in Tucson, Arizona. In no patient was there a prior history of edema, and an intensive search failed to reveal a cause for the swelling. Weight gain uniformly began 3 to 6 months after initiation of methadone or a sharp increase in the dosage, and in all three patients during periods when they sharply reduced or discontinued methadone, edema was resolved associated with a concomitant loss of weight.

Methadone and oedema in the palliative care setting: a case report and review of the literature

“…1 There have been five publications describing a potential link with methadone in non-palliative care setting and peripheral oedema. [2][3][4][5][6] The earliest being Longwell 2 who describes three patients prescribed methadone for treatment of opioid addiction. All develop peripheral oedema within three to six months of commencing methadone, and in all cases, the oedema improves with subsequent reduction or stopping of methadone maintenance treatment.…”

“…There have been five published cases of the development of peripheral oedema following methadone, where most of these relate to methadone maintenance therapy. [2][3][4][5][6] This is the first report on the development of significant peripheral oedema following methadone treatment for neuropathic pain in the palliative care setting. The oedema subsequently resolved following cessation of methadone.…”