Methadone: A decade of emerging abuse and toxicity

Abstract

Methadone, a synthetic opioid analgesic, was invented by German scientists and used as a spasmolytic compound and as an alternative to scarce morphine during the early 1940s. Over the next four decades, methadone (Dolophine, Methadose) found medicinal applications in the United States, first as a treatment for opioid abstinence syndrome and subsequently as a maintenance medication for opioid addicts to alleviate craving and withdrawal symptoms.