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  • BDD Moderators: Keif’ Richards | negrogesic

Tramadol gave me a seizure — 3 1/2 months benzo-free

truenamebrand

truenamebrand

Bluelighter
Joined
Jul 10, 2016
Messages
269
So I had a seizure yesterday, first time ever. (Scared the SHIT out of me once I realized what had happened.) I had taken about 300mg of tramadol. I’m well aware tramadol lowers the seizure threshold, but 300mg sure doesn’t seem like a high enough dose to actually cause one.

What I’m wondering is, I had a benzo habit for about 14 years, and I got off them in July... Is that a long enough time to get over the hump, so to speak? Or could only being a few months removed from getting off benzos have contributed to the seizure as well? I have no pre-existing conditions or anything like that. Again, 300mg of tramadol doesn’t seem like enough to cause it, but I guess I could be wrong...
 
Also, aren't you on some relatively high dose gabapentin? That's another one that may, in instances of paradoxical reaction or when mixed with seizure-threshold lowering agents.... can Cause a seizure .
And yeah tramadol itself can do it as well, in paradoxical reaxtion even as low as one little 50 mg pill. I've seen it happen in person. (The patient took NOTHING else).

Be careful! Why did you take 300? And was it all in one gulp ?
 
P.S. I personally don't think it relates to your prior benzo use unless it's simply that your body is still hovering round the rim edges of creating its homeostasis from down down downing on benzos for so long. Like the body itself tho free of current benzo use is still kind of Compromised. Weak, in a manner of speaking. Then boom it gets hit with 300 tram . . . . May have been toooooo much for ya.

Gabapentin? ??
 
Runningfox said:
Also, aren't you on some relatively high dose gabapentin? That's another one that may, in instances of paradoxical reaction or when mixed with seizure-threshold lowering agents.... can Cause a seizure .
And yeah tramadol itself can do it as well, in paradoxical reaxtion even as low as one little 50 mg pill. I've seen it happen in person. (The patient took NOTHING else).

Be careful! Why did you take 300? And was it all in one gulp ?
Click to expand...

Yes, I am currently on 1,200mg gabapentin a day, though my doctor just decided to increase that up to 1,800.

I did not take 300mg Tramadol all at once, and to be honest it might have even been a little less than 300. The early part of that day is now a blur. Admittedly, I was probably not being very careful at all.

I think you’re probably right about there being a paradoxical effect from the gabapentin in play. And although all my tests were fine at the hospital, my doctor now suggested I see a neurologist, just to be sure no other medications are going to put me at risk going forward.

(Good possibility I will be switching from gabapentin to pregabalin after my next appointment with him in December.)
 
^^^^ in case ya do, then be even More cautious. You've read up on pregabalin right? It's about 3x as strong as gabapentin mg for mg. It's like gabapentin without the fillers. (*IT made me feel all suicidal in 17 days of use. Yeeeeesh I ran like I had a hot guy in fronta me n a creepy guy behind me.

Be careful! Seizure- threshold issues would be same here, only stronger if mixing tramadol n pregabalin.

Drop the tramadol if you can manage without it.
That's what I would do as it's an easy drop (it's new, right?) Whereas gabapentin is a bitch to try walkin away from.

Peace--Fox
 
Oh and "all your tests are fine" is a standard line if all they ran was a CBC . that doesn't show blood levels of tramadol nor gabapentin.

I dunno what tests they ran of course but these are not drugs that show on a standard cbc nor tox panel. They'd have to run very specialized tests.
And still imho doctors rarely know wtf they're doing if ya show up on the er AFTER the seizure has ended.
Oy. Just be safe--- were you taking the tramadol ISO a buzz? Or for legit pain?
Two meds that CAN lower the seizure threshold == scary times.
 
I have a good friend and his dad who were using trams for a good month at high doses (my friend was taking 500-600 mg a day the last 2 weeks). It was right before he started getting physcially addicted to opes (before he knew about physical addiction or addiction period considering we were only 16 at the time, and his supply was the occasional roxy and percs via his dads stash) and a friend of his dads gave them 2 full bottles (either 90 or 180 each bottle). His dad wasnt taking them everyday or even near the dosage as him and within a month both had seizures. His dad had one the first week and friend had one the last week he took them. Anyway he has been physically addicted to xanax, opiates (slamming heroin was his DOC and his main ROA for the last year before he got clean), and alcohol but tramadol is literally the only drug hes had seizures from. The fact that his dad prob took 300 mg or so over a week period and had a seizure but it took my friend 4 weeks of daily doses of 300-600 mg before he had one seems to show some evidence (though this is only two cases of tram caused seizures) that tramadol does lower the thresh hold

Point summed up there seems to be some evidence of seizures at normal prescribed doses considering your experience and the two I wrote about (im sure many other cases) but is more common with higher "recreational" doses.
 
Makes me wonder how close I got to one. A stupid night of pain, drinking and tramadol while on vacation in Madrid. Must of been around 400-500mg with a shit ton of shots, good to know how high my seizure threshold is naturally I guess.
 
300mg is PLENTY enough to cause seizures. That's a heavy dose, so I don't know why you think that's too low to cause seizures...

But if you've stopped a 14 year benzo habit 4 months prior to dose and take 300mg tramadol, your asking for a seizure. A common benzo withdrawal symptom is seizures, and tramadol is known to lower the seizure threshold so it's strongly advised to not use tramadol while on withdrawal from benzos.

Don't do it again and perhaps see a doctor if you have concerns about anything. Be safe!! :)
 
Ok, maybe one of you guys could give me some insight here...

Ever since that seizure, kratom has completely STOPPED working. Not only has kratom stopped working, my doctor wrote me a script for Vicodin after that, and THAT did nothing as well. I took as much as 75mg of hydrocodone at once and absolutely nothing. Not even the slightest warm feeling. I have some opiate tolerance, but under normal circumstances 30mg of hydro is enough to feel SOMETHING.

What the HELL is going on here???
 
I haven't personally had much experience with Kratom, but I have heard it and PST destroy opiate tolerances because of the sheer amount of alkaloids found in the plant, isn't it basically like using 40 really weak opiates at once?
 
Also it could be that some of Kratom's alkaloids act as antagonists of the opiate receptor, which means it's basically hogging the receptor for a while after use and even if you dose an opiate the receptors will be full or preoccupied by the kratom alkaloids
 
^^^^^^ I fully concur with all that SHE said yet I would like to add: gabapentin AGAIN is a bugger in this instance though not an opiate itself, it can render your opiates ineffective if taken after the gabapentin. I have experimented in the past n found that if I take my opiates BEFORE INGESTING any gabapentin (and I mean HOURS N HOURS PRIOR) then my opiates have the correct and expected power of analgesia n Buzz -production .
If I take the gabapentin first (anytime prior in the same 24 hour period) my vicodin then was __________ . Blank. Meaningless. Wasted. NOTHIN.

Hope this all means you've pitched the tramadol for now ?
Good luck n be careful.
 
I dont know how gabapentin or pregablin could possibly render opioids ineffective from either a pharmacokinetic ot pharmacodynamic view. They dont hit the same receptors, they arent hepatically metabolized, Ive not seen evidence of them doing anything renally to effect opioids.

I may look into this but honestly think its either you just feel the gabapentinoids more than opioids or your pain is more neuropathic in nature.

If anyone has a study (or multiple ones) Id like to read them.
 
SheWasLvL18 said:
Also it could be that some of Kratom's alkaloids act as antagonists of the opiate receptor, which means it's basically hogging the receptor for a while after use and even if you dose an opiate the receptors will be full or preoccupied by the kratom alkaloids
Click to expand...

Kratom can definitely dampen other opioids with the antagonists present. I’ve had this happen before and considered this. But that should only be for a few hours, and I stopped my kratom intake when I got the hydro. At my last hydro doses, it had been 24 hours since I’d ingested kratom. At that point the hydro should be breaking through quite a bit. Yet I still felt nothing.

That of course doesn’t explain why the kratom itself hasn’t worked since my seizure.

Runningfox,

Gabapentin does indeed do this. But I’ve found, personally, that it’s really only at larger doses. If I take my prescribed dose, I’ve never run into a problem with gabapentin blocking the effects of kratom. Done it countless times. Something else is going on here, and it was brought on by either the tramadol or the seizure. I’m debating trying to take a full week break from kratom to “reset” my tolerance a bit, and see if that fixes the problem.


kittycat,

I can’t explain it from a pharmacological standpoint, only offer my anecdotal perspective. While I will say that the higher the dose of gabapentin, the more the kratom/opiate high seems to be dulled (your suggestion that it’s merely outweighing it), many will attest to gabapentinoids dulling or blocking opioids altogether. There definitely seems to be something to it, and gabapentin, as just one example, has a mechanism of action that isn’t fully understood.

Regardless, that doesn’t explain my current dilemma of kratom and opioids not working at all, as I specifically did NOT take my gabapentin for a couple days to eliminate that as a cause.
 
^^^^^ geeeez then..... duhhhhhh I dunno
.........**** scratches head n looks dumb****
 
After reading this I'm kinda scared.. Lately I've been taking 200mg of Tramadol every morning with about 1 mg of Suboxone. I also take 1800mg Gabapentin and 100mg of Zoloft along with it.. I thought that gabapentin with tramadol reduces your chance of seizures?? Today I took 50mg of hydrocodone and also felt nothing.
 
I was on gabepetin 300mg 3x a day cymbalta 60mg and tramadol. I feel your pain man i also suffered a seizure about a year and a half ago it freeked my wife and kids out all i remember was waking up in the back of a ambulance at the hospital. I will never take tramadol again.
 
I don't know much about gabapentin and Tramadol together--in fact, I know very little about gabapentin at all. I was just focusing on your taking hydrocodone and not feeling it. I wonder if it could be because of the Suboxone. A mg isn't very much, but Sub really jacks into those receptor sites and doesn't want to give them up to anything. I also was taking Tramadol and OxyContin when I gave it up and went on Sub some time ago. I quit the Oxys right away, because I was out anyway and didn't want to pay for any more, but since I still had some Tramadol, kept taking them for a week or so while getting on Sub and noticed that I wasn't feeling much of anything from the Trams as soon as I got on the Sub. So I quit them too. My experience was that Sub itself pretty much kept everything else, except benzoes, from having any effect.
 
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