Opioids Addicted to tramadol and thinking about asking my psychiatrist to take methadone

[dopamine seeker]

So I have been addicted to tramadol for two years or more at a dose of 400-1000mg a day. Important, I'm Brazilian, and here there is only buprenorphine patch, which I've used but it didn't help me much. Besides being very expensive. On the other hand, methadone is quite cheap.

The fact is that I really need the SNRI effect of tramadol, which was the only drug that helped me with depression. I've tried venlafaxine, desvenlafaxine, tricyclics and SSRI's.

So, today I have an appointment with my psychiatrist, and I've been reading a lot about the mechanism of methadone and I've seen that it has similar affinities to tramadol, and very importantly its NMDA antagonism. Doing a calculation, 5mg x2 a day would be enough... by the way, to say here that I already bought methadone illegally to try to treat myself, and I took that same dose, and it worked. My psychiatrist knows this.

He is very open to all of this, he even thought of keeping me on tramadol at 300mg as well as considering methadone at the dosage I said. The issue is that the cost of tramadol is very expensive too, and it would be a great relief to go for methadone. I am about to graduate in Biomedicine this year (Biomedical Sciences in the USA) and he takes what I say very seriously as I bring a lot of information and knowledge through research that involves all pharmacokinetics/dynamics/neuroscience as well as clinical cases. So I was wondering if anyone could tell me if this is a good idea, thinking I'm only going to take 10mg of done? which is very little and there is no likelihood that I will ever take more than that.

thanks

 

[Snafu in the Void]

What exactly is your goal here? To save money?

 

[DeathIndustrial88]

Depends...
I was addicted to tramadol for 10 years.
Been on bupe for the last 6.


Wish I knew a doctor willing to put me on tramadol & methadone at the same time. Holy crap.

Is your goal to get off opioids or are you happy staying on them?
Cause I'd say if you introduce methadone to your routine, you're only going to have an even stronger opioid dependence.
Methadone is much stronger than tramadol by far.

I have been on all the psyche meds you can think of & I have not found anything that can replicate what tramadol does.
Most people oversimplify tramadol as just being an "SNRI/opioid", but it's actually much more than just those two things.
This is why venlafaxine didn't work for me either. It may be structurally similar to tramadol but they feel nothing alike IMO.

Tramadol also a TAAR1 agonist. Among many other things.
I bet the TAAR1 agonism + an opioid is what makes tramadol so much harder to kick. It's also why tramadol seems to relieve depression almost immediately the first day you take it.

 

[dopamine seeker]

What exactly is your goal here? To save money?

Well, I can´t say this isn't a big deal. But, I really want to stop this hell of buiyng tramadol with fake script every 3 days. And most important, I really want to do and take what my psichiatrist prescribes me.

 

[dopamine seeker]

Depends...
I was addicted to tramadol for 10 years.
Been on bupe for the last 6.


Wish I knew a doctor willing to put me on tramadol & methadone at the same time. Holy crap.

Is your goal to get off opioids or are you happy staying on them?
Cause I'd say if you introduce methadone to your routine, you're only going to have an even stronger opioid dependence.
Methadone is much stronger than tramadol by far.

I have been on all the psyche meds you can think of & I have not found anything that can replicate what tramadol does.
Most people oversimplify tramadol as just being an "SNRI/opioid", but it's actually much more than just those two things.
This is why venlafaxine didn't work for me either. It may be structurally similar to tramadol but they feel nothing alike IMO.

Tramadol also a TAAR1 agonist. Among many other things.
I bet the TAAR1 agonism + an opioid is what makes tramadol so much harder to kick. It's also why tramadol seems to relieve depression almost immediately the first day you take it.

I make your words about tramadol mine, you just resumed perfectly the soo misunderstood opioid there is.
And answering your question, I need to be stable at this moment in my life (I'm working and studying), and there's no way of stopping trams as I've tried a bunch of times in every way. Also I must say that the bupe patch didn't work right because it never lasted 7 days, but 5 at max.
... Yes I need opioids, as tramadol comes with it's function on it's hole package. But my hopes are with this low dosage of methadone.
It's methadone, but a low dosage... that's the thing playing in my mind, don't you agree at some point?
thanks guys

 

[DeathIndustrial88]

I make your words about tramadol mine, you just resumed perfectly the soo misunderstood opioid there is.
And answering your question, I need to be stable at this moment in my life (I'm working and studying), and there's no way of stopping trams as I've tried a bunch of times in every way. Also I must say that the bupe patch didn't work right because it never lasted 7 days, but 5 at max.
... Yes I need opioids, as tramadol comes with it's function on it's hole package. But my hopes are with this low dosage of methadone.
It's methadone, but a low dosage... that's the thing playing in my mind, don't you agree at some point?
thanks guys

Yeah if you're just looking for stability, then methadone can be the way to go. Plus you're taking a pretty low dose of methadone.
Perhaps bupe didn't work for you since it's the patch. Here in the US we use the strips or pills & they come in much higher doses than the patches (I think).
Bupe helped me in the beginning get over tramadol withdrawal but after years of using bupe now, I kinda miss tramadol. I found I had more productivity, more euphoria & less depression on tramadol. Tramadol + bupe can also be a good combo.

 

[SpiralusSancti]

Did you ever tried methadone? Imho it can’t give you what tramadol can. It’s completely different feeling. I like it better cuz it’s much stronger and cuz it induces nod very easy if you ain’t got big tolerance. But for that very reason I know I would be much less productive than on tramadol and likely got more addicted to it than I did on any other opiod, given I would accept having it prescribed. Tramadol for me is pretty uplifting at any point of high (I don’t dose high tho). Only other common opiod I found that uplifting is oxy. But thing is I find most opiods pretty uplifting and that said ime even morphine is much more uplifting than methadone.

You can’t ignore that tramadol is for a reason considered less heavy drug than most opiods. It might have SNRI and some other mechanisms of action that most other opiods don’t have but it’s still not a beast when it comes to high it produces. I’ve met people who claim that tramadol was hardest opiod for them to kick, even harder than heroin. But that’s not a norm, and were they given SNRI and codeine or some other light opiod, they wouldn’t suffer that much.

I can’t see switching to methadone from tramadol as a good idea. And I must point out that number of people who got into much trouble with methadone, more so than with heroin is hugely outnumbering people who got into more problems with tramadol. If you were asking about switching from tramadol to kratom or codeine that I might back up, but this not.

What you should focus on is keeping dose of tramadol at no more than 400mg to avoid seizures. You have much better chance of staying functional member of society without escalating that dose instead going for a much stronger opiod.

When you have food and roof over your head, saving money by getting hooked to drug more addictive than you are currently on for most people shouldn’t be considered at all.

You also didn’t mention how long you are on tramadol. Given enough time it could prove more problematic than “cleaner” opiods but that’s why you should consider trying out SNRIs or NMDA antagonists or something elese until you find the right one and maybe complementing whit some lighter, not heavier opiod. Opiods work wonders for mental health problems of many people, but using them regularly for anything but pain should be avoided far and wide. That way they can stay life long friendly companion instead of violent monkey they become given enough time.

 

[Ton Croose]

Is kratom available in Brazil? If so it is an absolute miracle cure for tramadol withdrawal and definitely better than methadone. In most places it seems to be available but borderline legal. If it isn't specifically listed as being illegal (alongside hard drugs), I would risk ordering some online as it is so good. 300g should be enough. Take as needed for 12 days then taper down over the next 2 weeks until you run out. Has been an amazing tool for me several times.

 

[DatGas]

Don't go high on the methadone dose. My 2 cents. Took 100mgs for 5 years. Kratom is good stuff to when needed.

 

[AlsoTapered]

1000mg of tramadol a day? That's reaching quite toxic doses. In the UK tramadol was the answer to anyone who would previously have been given codeine... then a lot of accidental overdoses occurred because while taking 300-400mg of codeine at once is unlikely to kill, 300-400mg of tramadol at once can and does.

I find it unlikely that a doctor would prefer to give methadone if codeine will work - and since tramadol was supposed to replace codeine, it's the best fit. 50mg tramadol is supposed to have the analgesic potency of 30mg codeine.

 

[jambabomba]

1000mg of tramadol a day? That's reaching quite toxic doses. In the UK tramadol was the answer to anyone who would previously have been given codeine... then a lot of accidental overdoses occurred because while taking 300-400mg of codeine at once is unlikely to kill, 300-400mg of tramadol at once can and does.

I find it unlikely that a doctor would prefer to give methadone if codeine will work - and since tramadol was supposed to replace codeine, it's the best fit. 50mg tramadol is supposed to have the analgesic potency of 30mg codeine.

300-400mg of Tramadol kills? By what? By convulsions? Or what?

 

[jambabomba]

Your situation seems similar to mine as I have also found within last 20y that Tramadol is the unique opioid that helps with myriad of my symptoms and increases the work ability like no other drug. I have been also experiecing with Buprenorphine, Oxycodone and Methadone but even after them I am coming back to Tramadol. Now I am also wondering this interaction between Methadone's SSRI effect and Tramadol's serotonin increasing activities. Have you combined Methadone&Tramadol allready and was there any problems with too much serotonin? No riks of serotonin syndrome and so on?

You mentioned unique way of its functions like TAAR1.

If you have more information about Tramadol would you mind to share? I would also need it with my doctor! Seems I have same difficulties as you.

My dose of Tramadol is usually no more than 600mg per day as I don't like to live with that thought of possible overdose and convulsions. I take once at max. 300mg. Usually I try to take only 200mg at once and next dose aftef 4-6h.

Now I am taking Methadone about 15-20mg/d. I am asking when it will be safe to dose full dose of Tramadol (400-600mg/d) again without serotonin issues? That dose of Methadone wasn't enough yesterday and needed to take 60mg Oxycodone on top of it but now I need to change ASAP back to Tramadol again.