Population Pharmacokinetics to Support Intravenous and Enteral Methadone Dosing in Children

Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, January 2026

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Watt KM, Thompson EJ, Lam L, Zimmerman K, Hornik CP, Atz AM, Fernandez A, Hupp SR, Bhatt-Mehta V, Benjamin DK Jr, Anand R, Cohen-Wolkowiez M, Gonzalez D, Smith PB, Capparelli EV; Best Pharmaceuticals for Children Act — Pediatric Trials Network Steering Committee.

Methadone is used in hospitalized children to treat pain and iatrogenic opiate withdrawal. Optimal pediatric dosing for both enteral and intravenous methadone is unknown. We conducted two prospective, multi-center, open-label studies to characterize the pharmacokinetics of methadone in the pediatric population. 

Use of physiologically-based pharmacokinetic modeling to inform dosing of the opioid analgesics fentanyl and methadone in children with obesity

CPT: Pharmacometrics & Systems Pharmacology  June 2022

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Gerhart JG, Carreno FO, Ford JL, Edginton AN, Perrin EM, Watt KM, Muller WJ, Atz AM, Al-Uzri A, Delmore P, Gonzalez D; on behalf of the Best Pharmaceuticals for Children Act – Pediatric Trials Network Steering Committee
Children with obesity are commonly prescribed the opioids fentanyl and methadone, and accurate dosing is critical to reducing the risk of serious adverse events associated with overexposure. However, there is limited information to guide fentanyl and methadone dosing in these children. This study addresses the clinical knowledge gap using physiologically-based pharmacokinetic models of fentanyl and methadone developed in adults and scaled to children with and without obesity to explore the interplay of obesity, age, and pharmacogenomics.

CYP2B6 Genotype Affects Methadone Disposition in Children as Demonstrated by Physiologically-Based Pharmacokinetic (PBPK) Modeling

Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics • March 2020

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Gerhart JG, Edginton A, Watt KM, Cohen-Wolkowiez M, Harper B, Muller W, Delmore P, Atz A, Gonzalez D; on behalf of the Best Pharmaceuticals for Children Act – Pediatric Trials Network Steering Committee

Meeting abstract from Annual Meeting of the American-Society-for-Clinical-Pharmacology-and-Therapeutics on March 18-21, 2020.