Methadone and Xanax: A Recipe for Death?

Whether used as a treatment remedy or for recreational purposes, methadone carries a potential for abuse and addiction. Likewise, Xanax also carries a high risk for abuse, so combining these two drugs can cause serious problems in a person’s life.

Methadone and Xanax belong to two different drug classes, but this doesn’t stop them from working together in harmful ways when used in excess. In the right dosage amounts, methadone and Xanax create the perfect storm and can most definitely result in death.

Call our toll-free helpline at 800-994-1867Who Answers? to ask about drug rehab programs that treat methadone and Xanax addiction.

Opioids and Benzodiazepines: A Dangerous Combination

Methadone belongs to the opiate drug class, while Xanax is a benzodiazepine drug. While opiates and benzodiazepines may produce different effects, they nonetheless interact with the same areas of the brain and central nervous system.

Combining methadone and Xanax puts you at risk for overdose.

Both drug types act as depressants, slowing brain and central nervous system functions. These effects impact most every major bodily system.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, benzodiazepines slow electrical activity in the brain, which accounts for their effectiveness as anti-anxiety agents. Opiates produce pain-relieving effects through their ability to slow chemical activities throughout the central nervous system.

Ultimately, the combined effects of methadone and Xanax can disrupt the body’s major systems in dangerous ways.

Dangerous Side Effects

Rising Tolerance Levels

Both methadone and Xanax produce their effects by stimulating neurotransmitter production rates in the brain. The cells that produce these chemicals must work harder than normal in the process.

With continued drug use, affected cells start to undergo structural damage that makes them less sensitive to methadone and Xanax effects. This means larger drug doses must be ingested in order for a person to experience the desired effects of the drug.

In the process, the brain’s tolerance for both drugs continues to increase for as long as a person keeps taking them. With long-term drug abuse, the risk of overdose and death increases accordingly.

Respiratory Depression

Considering how methadone and Xanax effects slow central nervous system functions, combining the two drugs only works to intensify each drug’s depressant effects. According to the American Journal on Addictions, these conditions place users at increasing risk of respiratory depression.

Respiratory depression exists as the number one cause of opiate overdose deaths. Combining Xanax with methadone on a regular basis only increases this risk.

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Addiction Potential

Considering how methadone and Xanax both affect the brain and body in similar ways, it’s no surprise that both these drugs carry a high abuse and addiction potential. Once an addiction problem takes hold, users have reached a point where they’re engaging in compulsive drug-using behaviors. Compulsive drug-use greatly increases the risk of death when combining these two drugs.

Overall, opiates and benzodiazepines are two of the most addictive types of drugs. The potential for abuse and addiction remains regardless of why a person takes methadone and Xanax. In effect, the longer you keep taking these drugs, the greater the risk of addiction, overdose and even death.

If you’re struggling with a methadone or Xanax abuse problem and don’t know where to turn for help, please feel free to call our toll-free helpline at 800-994-1867Who Answers? to speak with one of our addiction counselors.