Actually, methadone is commonly used to treat those with chronic pain. It’s one of the cheapest pain meds, so for those who are disabled by pain and unable to work it is often the only medication they can afford. With chronic pain and being on opioids you develop tolerance to drugs and you need stronger or more medication to manage the same condition. That’s one reason that methadone is still in use, because it is a strong drug. I guess because fentanyl has gotten into the heroin supply in the US and has killed people we should take that drug off the market as well? Fentanyl is 100 times as powerful as morphine, and is used in opioid tolerant patients. These patients may have just been taking opioids for a dozen years to need a drug as strong as fentanyl, they can’t be helped with medication that isn’t as strong, but because it can kill someone I guess that it means it shouldn’t be prescribed?

People always jump to conclusions when pain medications are prescribed. They feel the dosage is too much, the medications are misused, and it really causes problems in caring for those who have true chronic pain.

Melanie:

I don’t remember if it was “Extra” or “ET” or what, but Dr’s were on one of those shows talking about methadone and how it’s not usually prescribed for back pains, or any other type of pain for that matter. All you need to do is a GOOGLE search and what is brought up in descriptions about methadone is it’s most commom use for recovering drug addicts! One of the drs. that talked said that Daniel should have been given a more appropriate drug for his back pain such as VICODIN. Bottom line is Daniel should have NEVER been given that medication! I bet Anna Nicole will have a lawsuit in the works very soon because of these findings!

They didn’t actually ‘wed’ but they had commitment vows. HMMMMM

Anna just exchanged vows with Howard K. Stern! So many things happening right now with Daniel and the new baby…now she’s married! Things are happening so fast for her.

A lot of people think of methadone as being a drug only used for heroin addicts. Not true. It is prescribed for pain (back pain, severe migranes, etc.) Ironically, methadone is very often used to help people who are addicted to vicodin. However vicodin, methadone, and oxycontin are very similar. All are synthetic opiates.

Shouldn’t a doctor or pharmacist have picked up on the fact that he was taking a dangerous combination of medications? I thought one of the main roles of a pharmacist was to watch out for possible drug interactions. I wonder if there will be an investigation as to how this slipped by.

Drs. don’t usually prescribe methadone for pain, it’s way too powerful a drug for that. That drug is commonly used to help recovering HEROINE addicts. Why wasn’t he given Vicoden instead?????

It is sad… he looked like such a sweet boy and no doubt adored by his mother. In a way it’s good she has the new baby to focus on, that must help a little… so sad…

That is awful. Yes Methadone IS USED for pain medication and ironically I saw the special 20/20 on it last week. The whole thing was about how doctors do not know how to prescribe it and many people TAKING IT TO TREAT PAIN SUCH AS BACK PAIN have suddenly died from it. I think that it needs to be taken off of the market ASAP! At least Anna can hopefully have some closure knowing what really happened. Again..it is very sad.

What a sad and untimely passing. I hope that Anna Nicole, and Howard can move forward, knowing that Daniel at least met his baby sister, and was firmly loved for twenty years, by them.