Methadone
Methadone (also known as Symoron, Dolophine, Amidone, Methadose, Physeptone, Heptadon and many other names) is a synthetic opioid. It is used medically as an analgesic and a maintenance anti-addictive and reductive preparation for use by patients with opioid dependence. It was developed in Germany in 1937, mainly because Germany required a reliable internal source of opioids. Because it is an acyclic analog of morphine or heroin, methadone acts on the same opioid receptors as these drugs, and thus has many of the same effects. Methadone is also used in managing severe chronic pain, owing to its long duration of action, strong analgesic effect, and very low cost. Methadone was introduced into the United States in 1947 by Eli Lilly and Company. Abuse of methadone results in about 5,000 overdose deaths per year in the United States.
Methadone is listed under Schedule I of the Single Convention On Narcotic Drugs 1961 and is regulated in the same basic fashion as morphine in most countries as a result. In the United States, it is a Schedule II Narcotic controlled substance with an ACSCN of 9250 and a 2013 annual aggregate manufacturing quota of 25 metric tons, down from just under 30 in 2012. One intermediate in the manufacturing process, 4-cyano-2-dimethylamino-4,4-diphenyl butane, is also listed as a Schedule II Narcotic Intermediate controlled substance with ACSCN 9254 and a quota of 32.5 metric tons. Levomethadone is presumably under Schedule II as an isomer of methadone. The salts of methadone in common medical use are the hydrochloride (free base conversion ratio 0.89) and hydrobromide (0.79); the tartrate was used in the past.
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