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Stimulants Methylphenidate is causing me severe joint & muscle pain and extreme dystonia

L

LurkerSince09

Greenlighter
Joined
Jul 28, 2014
Messages
8
I know it's technically just a stimulant but when I take my concerta (I used to be on 54mg 3x a day few years back and I wasn't having this issue) 2x 36mg pills my groin joints, my spine, neck, knees, elbows, even fingers and my feet.. Why is this suddenly such an intense problem? I even take 8mg Xanax daily and it doesn't even assist in the pain. Tylenol helps more.

Btw it's concerta sustained release

And yes, I'm staying hydrated and eating.
 
Both methylphenidate & coke often cause muscle tension & thus pain for me. What you're experiencing is not that unusual. IME, the more frequently & higher dosed I use any stimulants, the more I experience unpleasant side effects like yours. So this sounds like classic overuse to me. Some of us are simply more prone to developing side effects with regular use.

Xanax wouldn't help as it doesn't treat muscle or joint pain. Have you tried ibuprofen? Personally, Valium helps me the most by far with such stim effects.

Can you take it only every other day? I would try that, to begin with, assuming you're unwilling to stop cold turkey for good - .though I would recommend a good long break of a month at least if you care about your overall health. I don't think it's healthy or wise to take MP daily, especially not long term.
 
Methylphenidate is one of the worst magnesium robbers. To be fair, ALL stimulants rob your body of magnesium, but Methylphenidate and cocaine seem to be the worst ones. Magnesium is essential for muscle contraction, and a deficiency leads to muscle and joint soreness.

Supplement, every day, with 400 mgs of magnesium citrate or magnesium glycinate and a methylated b-complex, and see if that helps. Don’t forget to have off days from your concerta, to give your body time off from your drugs. Lots of people do 2 days on 1 day off, or 4 days on 3 days off, cycle.

Make sure you’re 20-30 minutes exercise, every day, to combat vaso-constriction (restricted blood flow) that you get from stimulants.

Be healthy and love love your body!
 
I had this too (with Concerta specifically). I hadn't been taking it for long at that point, a month or two I think? At the low dosage of 18mg x 2. I wasn't getting the therapeutic benefit despite having the exact same problems you described. I had 1mg of daily clonazepam, but it didn't help at all. Knees, feet, fingers and elbows were the worst for me and it's not just a simple ache or soreness, it was proper pain that felt pretty serious to me. Also had issues with vasoconstriction.

Dystonia from MPH is a new one for me, and according to brief research it seems to occur most often in young children and people taking other psych meds with MPH, though in rare cases just MPH alone has caused a dystonic reaction. Are you also taking other dopaminergic drugs, anti-psychotics specifically? SSRI's? Venlaflaxine/efexor? The exact causes of these reactions aren't really known (dystonia etc), with MPH there's usually a delay of few weeks before they begin to manifest and once they do, you start experiencing intense symptoms within hours of dosing IIRC. Best advice I can give is switch to a different stimulant medication if you need one, as you really shouldn't take MPH when the side-effects are this serious I'm afraid. I have had one episode of acute (cervical) dystonia in my life for other reasons and holy shit, never again!

Just my personal experience as a patient.
 
I agree about the magnesium, though I strongly recommend the glycinate over the citrate form. I recommend potassium supplementation too, though unfortunately in the US you can't get proper potassium supps, except for ONE brand I know of called Trace Minerals. They make these big salt/mineral tablets rich in magnesium & potassium, which are absolutely fantastic for muscle cramping, & they also greatly improve hydration. Drinking most water is not optimally hydrating due to improper mineral content & ratios, but these pills will fix that. I'm extremely prone to muscle pain/spasms & they are a miracle for me. Especially if I'm using stims or exercising a bunch.

Good tips about how to use stims regularly more healthily & effectively. I find every 3rd day is the most often I can take any stim & continue to get primarily only good effects - and that's when I'm in good health overall & taking supps/eating plenty of good protein. Otherwise it drops to 1x a week at best.
 
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