title: Gut motility and transit changes in patients receiving long-term methadone maintenance.
abstract: This study was conducted to survey gut motility and transit in 19 volunteers receiving methadone maintenance who were opioid-dependent, and to measure the oral-cecal transit time in these individuals using the lactulose hydrogen breath test. None of these patients reported constipation problems before use of illicit drugs. During current long-term methadone therapy, 58% of patients experienced some degree of constipation, and two of these 19 patients reported that constipation was a very serious problem. Mean +/- standard deviation (SD) oral-cecal transit time in these individuals was 159+/-49.2 minutes, which is significantly longer than the transit time recorded in two previous studies of healthy volunteers (P < 0.01). These results indicate that tolerance to opioids does not appear to extend to gastrointestinal motility and transit. It seems that patients receiving long-term methadone therapy are a good model for use in evaluating gastrointestinal effects of opioid antagonists.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesia and Critical Care, Pritzker School of Medicine, The University of Chicago, Illinois 60637, USA.
authors.forename: C S
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Yuan
authors.forename: J F
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Foss
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: O'Connor
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Moss
authors.forename: M F
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: Roizen
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001944:Breath Tests; D002849:Chromatography, Gas; D003248:Constipation / Q000139:chemically induced; D005260:Female; D005769:Gastrointestinal Motility / Q000187:drug effects*; D005772:Gastrointestinal Transit / Q000187:drug effects; D006801:Humans; D006859:Hydrogen / Q000032:analysis; D008297:Male; D008691:Methadone / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000494:pharmacology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D009293:Opioid-Related Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric
chemical_list: D006859:Hydrogen; D008691:Methadone