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Methadone Diskets FDA Alerts

The FDA Alerts below may be specifically about Methadone Diskets or relate to a group or class of drugs which include Methadone Diskets.

MedWatch Safety Alerts are distributed by the FDA and published by Drugs.com. Following is a list of possible medication recalls, market withdrawals, alerts and warnings.

Recent FDA Alerts for Methadone Diskets

Opioid Pain Relievers or Medicines to Treat Opioid Use Disorder - FDA Recommends Health Care Professionals Discuss Naloxone with All Patients when Prescribing

Jul 23, 2020 | Audience: Consumer, Health Professional, Pharmacy

ISSUE: FDA is requiring drug manufacturers for all opioid pain relievers and medicines to treat opioid use disorder (OUD) to add new recommendations about naloxone to the prescribing information.  This will help ensure that health care professionals discuss the availability of naloxone and assess each patient’s need for a naloxone prescription when opioid pain relievers or medicines to treat OUD are being prescribed or renewed.  The patient Medication Guides will also be updated.

BACKGROUND: Opioid pain relievers are medicines that can help manage pain when other treatments and medicines are not able to provide enough pain relief.  Certain opioids are also used to treat OUD.  Opioids have serious risks, including misuse and abuse, addiction, overdose, and death.  Naloxone can help reverse opioid overdose to prevent death.

The misuse and abuse of illicit and prescription opioids and the risks of addiction, overdose, and death are a public health crisis in the United States.  As a result, FDA is committed to encouraging health care professionals to raise awareness of the availability of naloxone when they are prescribing and dispensing opioid pain relievers or medicines to treat OUD.  FDA held discussions about naloxone availability with the Anesthetic and Analgesic Drug Products and the Drug Safety and Risk Management Advisory Committees, which recommended that all patients being prescribed opioids for use in the outpatient setting would benefit from a conversation with their health care professional about the availability of naloxone. 

RECOMMENDATION:
Patients: 

  • Talk to your health care professionals about the benefits of naloxone and how to obtain it.  
  • Recognize the signs and symptoms of a possible opioid overdose.  These include slowed, shallow, or difficult breathing, severe sleepiness, or not being able to respond or wake up.  If you know or think someone is overdosing, give the person naloxone if you have access to it, and always call 911 or go to an emergency room right away.  Naloxone is a temporary treatment, so repeat doses may be required.  Even if you give naloxone, you still need to get emergency medical help right away.
  • If you have naloxone, make sure to tell your caregivers, household members, and other close contacts that you have it, where it is stored, and how to properly use it in the event of an overdose.  When using opioid medicines away from home, carry naloxone with you and let those you are with know you have it, where it is, and how to use it.  Read the Patient Information leaflet or other educational material and Instructions for Use that comes with your naloxone because it explains important information, including how to use the medicine.  

Health Care Professionals: 

  • Discuss the availability of naloxone with all patients when prescribing or renewing an opioid analgesic or medicine to treat OUD.  
  • Consider prescribing naloxone to patients prescribed medicines to treat OUD and patients prescribed opioid analgesics who are at increased risk of opioid overdose.  
  • Consider prescribing naloxone when a patient has household members, including children, or other close contacts at risk for accidental ingestion or opioid overdose.
  • Additionally, even if the patients are not receiving a prescription for an opioid analgesic or medicine to treat OUD, consider prescribing naloxone to them if they are at increased risk of opioid overdose. 
  • Educate patients and caregivers on how to recognize respiratory depression and how to administer naloxone.  Inform them about their options for obtaining naloxone as permitted by their individual state dispensing and prescribing requirements or guidelines for naloxone. Emphasize the importance of calling 911 or getting emergency medical help right away, even if naloxone is administered. 

Patients and health care professionals are encouraged to report adverse events or side effects related to the use of these products to the FDA's MedWatch Safety Information and Adverse Event Reporting Program:

  • Complete and submit the report online.
  • Download form or call 1-800-332-1088 to request a reporting form, then complete and return to the address on the form, or submit by fax to 1-800-FDA-0178

[07/23/2020 - Drug Safety Communication - FDA] 

Source: FDA

Opioid Addiction Medications in Patients Taking Benzodiazepines or CNS Depressants: Drug Safety Communication - Careful Medication Management Can Reduce Risks

Sep 20, 2017 | Audience: Health Professional, Pain Management

ISSUE: Based on additional review, FDA is advising that the opioid addiction medications buprenorphine and methadone should not be withheld from patients taking benzodiazepines or other drugs that depress the central nervous system (CNS). The combined use of these drugs increases the risk of serious side effects; however, the harm caused by untreated opioid addiction usually outweighs these risks. Careful medication management by health care professionals can reduce these risks.  FDA is requiring this information to be added to the buprenorphine and methadone drug labels along with detailed recommendations for minimizing the use of medication-assisted treatment (MAT) drugs and benzodiazepines together. 

BACKGROUND: Many patients with opioid dependence may also use benzodiazepines or other CNS depressants, either under a health care professional’s direction or illicitly. Although there are serious risks with combining these medicines, excluding patients from MAT or discharging patients from treatment because of use of benzodiazepines or CNS depressants is not likely to stop them from using these drugs together. Instead, the combined use may continue outside the treatment setting, which could result in more severe outcomes.

RECOMMENDATIONS: Health care professionals should take several actions and precautions and develop a treatment plan when buprenorphine or methadone is used in combination with benzodiazepines or other CNS depressants. These include:

  • Educating patients about the serious risks of combined use, including overdose and death, that can occur with CNS depressants even when used as prescribed, as well as when used illicitly.
  • Developing strategies to manage the use of prescribed or illicit benzodiazepines or other CNS depressants when starting MAT.
  • Tapering the benzodiazepine or CNS depressant to discontinuation if possible.
  • Verifying the diagnosis if a patient is receiving prescribed benzodiazepines or other CNS depressants for anxiety or insomnia, and considering other treatment options for these conditions.
  • Recognizing that patients may require MAT medications indefinitely and their use should continue for as long as patients are benefiting and their use contributes to the intended treatment goals.
  • Coordinating care to ensure other prescribers are aware of the patient’s buprenorphine or methadone treatment.
  • Monitoring for illicit drug use, including urine or blood screening.

Patients taking MAT drugs should continue to take these medicines as prescribed. Do not stop taking other prescribed medicines without first talking to your health care professional.  Before starting any new medicines, tell your health care professional that you are taking MAT. Do not take non-prescribed benzodiazepines or other sedatives (See Table 2 in the Drug Safety Communication, List of Benzodiazepines and Other CNS Depressants) or use alcohol when taking MAT because the combined use increases the possibility of harm, including overdose and death.

Healthcare professionals and patients are encouraged to report adverse events or side effects related to the use of these products to the FDA's MedWatch Safety Information and Adverse Event Reporting Program:

[09/20/2017 - Drug Safety Communication - FDA]

Compounded Drugs Stored in Becton-Dickinson (BD) 3 ml and 5 ml Syringes: FDA Warning - Do Not Use

Aug 17, 2015 | Audience: Pharmacy, Compounding, Nursing, Risk Manager

ISSUE: FDA is alerting health care professionals not to administer to patients compounded or repackaged drugs that have been stored in 3 milliliter (ml) and 5ml syringes manufactured by Becton-Dickinson (BD) unless there is no suitable alternative available. Preliminary information indicates that drugs stored in these syringes may lose potency over a period of time due to a possible interaction with the rubber stopper in the syringe.

If you have been using products packaged in these syringes, be aware that using a substitute product may require a dosage adjustment in case the patient has been receiving a subpotent product, or adverse consequences could occur.

BD’s 10ml, 20ml and 30ml syringes may also contain the same rubber stopper. The company is alerting their customers not to use these syringes as a closed container system for compounded and repackaged drugs.

BACKGROUND: FDA has cleared these syringes as medical devices for general purpose fluid aspiration and injection only.  These syringes were not cleared for use as a closed container storage system for drug products, and the suitability of these syringes for that purpose has not been established.  This issue may extend to other general use syringes made by other manufacturers that were not cleared for the purpose of closed-container storage usage. FDA has received several reports of compounded and repackaged drugs, such as fentanyl, morphine, methadone and atropine, losing potency when stored in BD 3ml and 5ml general purpose syringes. It is possible that this chemical reaction may affect other compounded and repackaged drugs stored in syringes not FDA cleared for closed-container storage.

RECOMMENDATION: Hospital and pharmacy staff should check supply stocks and remove drug products that were filled by pharmacies or outsourcing facilities and stored in general purpose BD 3ml and 5ml syringes.  These syringes are marked with the BD logo at the base of the syringe. At this time, FDA does not have information on how long drugs can be stored in these syringes before degrading. There is no information to suggest that there is a problem with potency or drug degradation when medication is administered promptly after the syringes are filled.

This warning does not extend to products approved by FDA for marketing as pre-filled syringes, because as part of the approval process, FDA has determined that these products have been shown to maintain stability in the syringe container through the expiration date on the product.

The FDA is continuing to investigate this issue and will provide more information when it is available.

Healthcare professionals and patients are encouraged to report adverse events or side effects related to the use of these products to the FDA's MedWatch Safety Information and Adverse Event Reporting Program:

[08/18/2015 - Warning - FDA]
 

Dolophine (methadone hydrochloride)

Nov 27, 2006 | Audience: Pain management specialists, pharmacists, and other healthcare professionalsIndication: Treatment of moderate to severe pain not responsive to non-narcotic analgesics; detoxification of opioid addiction; and maintenance treatment of opioid addiction
[Posted 11/27/2006] FDA notified healthcare professionals of reports of death and life-threatening adverse events such as respiratory depression and cardiac arrhythmias in patients receiving methadone. These adverse events are the possible result of unintentional methadone overdoses, drug interactions, and methadone's cardiac toxicities (QT prolongation and Torsades de Pointes). The reports underscore the importance of knowing methadone's toxicities and unique pharmacologic properties, including dosing and monitoring recommendations.

Methadone Hydrochloride (dolophine)

Nov 27, 2006 | Audience: Pain management specialists, pharmacists, and other healthcare professionalsIndication: Treatment of moderate to severe pain not responsive to non-narcotic analgesics; detoxification of opioid addiction; and maintenance treatment of opioid addiction
[Posted 11/27/2006] FDA notified healthcare professionals of reports of death and life-threatening adverse events such as respiratory depression and cardiac arrhythmias in patients receiving methadone. These adverse events are the possible result of unintentional methadone overdoses, drug interactions, and methadone's cardiac toxicities (QT prolongation and Torsades de Pointes). The reports underscore the importance of knowing methadone's toxicities and unique pharmacologic properties, including dosing and monitoring recommendations.

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