WASHINGTON, April 28 (UPI) -- Federal officials say they have started a program designed to ensure the safe use of methadone, a prescription drug used to treat heroin addiction.
The U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said the campaign responds to concerns about escalating numbers of poisoning deaths linked with improper use of the medication.
The program -- Follow Directions: How to Use Methadone Safely -- is designed to inform consumers, health care professionals and treatment clinics about the safe use and misuse of the drug for both pain relief and drug addiction treatment, officials said.
The FDA said methadone is a synthetic opioid that has been increasingly prescribed as a pain reliever for patients whose moderate-to-severe chronic pain doesn't respond to non-narcotic pain medications.
The percentage of all poisoning deaths linked to methadone has tripled in recent years, increasing from 4 percent in 1999 to 14 percent in 2004, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Officials said the number of poisoning deaths linked with methadone is rising faster than the number of poisoning deaths from any other narcotic drug.
