I have been prescribed methadone and morphine at the same time. Is this safe?

Question

I was in a bad car accident and have chronic back pain. My doctor prescribed me methadone and morphine along with a list of other pain pills. I took the methadone and morphine together for the first time the other day and had bad chest pains. Are these two not supposed to be taken with each other?

Answer 1

The methadone is long acting and should provide a baseline level of pain control.  The morphine is probably for breakthrough pain - if you have episodes of pain that the methadone isn't handling.

If you aren't being seen by a physician who is a pain specialist, I recommend that you find one.  Long term opiate use has some drawbacks, and you might benefit from some different medications, procedures or techniques to reduce your dependency on opiates.

Answer 2

They can be and often are. But you need to tell your doctor about the chest pain symptoms RIGHT NOW.

Answer 3

they are both opiate agonists and they work in synergy. stop taking all your pain meds except for one and go to the doctor and get this cleared up, otherwise you run the risk of overdosing or developing dependancies.