Editing Methadone (section)

=== Mortality ===
In the United States, deaths linked to methadone more than quadrupled in the five-year period between 1999 and 2004. According to the U.S. National Center for Health Statistics,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/pubs/pubd/hestats/methadone1999-04/methadone1999-04.htm |title=Increases in Methadone-Related Deaths:1999–2004 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100411213556/http://cdc.gov/nchs/products/pubs/pubd/hestats/methadone1999-04/methadone1999-04.htm |archive-date=11 April 2010 |date=4 September 2018 }}</ref> as well as a 2006 series in the ''Charleston Gazette'' (West Virginia),<ref name="http://www.wvgazette.com/section/Series/The+Killer+Cure">[http://www.wvgazette.com/section/Series/The+Killer+Cure "The Killer Cure"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060618125503/http://wvgazette.com/section/Series/The+Killer+Cure |date=18 June 2006 }} ''The Charleston Gazette'' 2006</ref> medical examiners listed methadone as contributing to 3,849 deaths in 2004. That number was up from 790 in 1999. Approximately 82 percent of those deaths were listed as accidental, and most deaths involved combinations of methadone with other drugs (especially [[benzodiazepines]]).

Although deaths from methadone are on the rise{{update inline|date=January 2024}}, methadone-associated deaths are not being caused primarily by methadone intended for methadone treatment programs, according to a panel of experts convened by the [[Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration]], which released a report titled "Methadone-Associated Mortality, Report of a National Assessment". The consensus report concludes that "although the data remains incomplete, National Assessment meeting participants concurred that methadone tablets or Diskets distributed through channels other than opioid treatment programs most likely are the central factors in methadone-associated mortality."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://alcoholism.about.com/cs/heroin/a/blsam040209.htm |title=Methadone-Associated Mortality, Report of a National Assessment |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160101081924/http://alcoholism.about.com/cs/heroin/a/blsam040209.htm |archive-date=1 January 2016 }}</ref>

In 2006, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a caution about methadone, titled "Methadone Use for Pain Control May Result in Death." The FDA also revised the drug's package insert. The change deleted previous information about the usual adult dosage. The ''Charleston Gazette'' reported, "The old language about the 'usual adult dose' was potentially deadly, according to pain specialists."<ref>{{cite news | url = http://wvgazette.com/News/TheKillerCure/200611280003 | newspaper = Charleston Gazette | title = New warning issued on methadone | date = 28 November 2006 | vauthors = Finn S, Tuckwiller T | url-status = live | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100213212647/http://wvgazette.com/News/TheKillerCure/200611280003 | archive-date = 13 February 2010 }}</ref>