So how MUCH Naproxen should I take with my DHC to get a noticeable effect? The tablets are 250mg but I'll take two when I need to (osteoarthritis in my knees).
500 mg of naproxen is a good dose in general and goes great with the dihydrocodeine as I know from experience. The euphoria in this case could be either additive, or synergistic.
There is naproxen and naproxen sodium* used as pharmaceuticals. The free acid conversion ratio is .909, so 500 mg of naproxen is the equivalent of 550 mg of naproxen sodium.
The immediate-release tablets, capsules, and gelcaps I have seen come in 110, 175, 200, 220, 250, 300, 350, 375, 400, 440, 500, 550, 650 mg -- in both forms, actually, though the 550 mg tablet I used to get when it was prescription is naproxen sodium. Extended-release products which I have seen are meant to last 12 hours and have been 375, 500, 1000, and 1375 mg of either form.
Other forms of naproxen available are liquids, drops, chewable tablets, effervescent tablets and powders, syrups, concentrated syrups, suppositories, topical gels and creams, ampoules and phials of solution for injection, and powders for compounding. There are also tablets, chewable tablets, drops, solutions, injectable solutions, and electuaries for veterinary use.
I give one of my cats shots of glucosamine & chondroitin, meloxicam, butorphanol, and if she is obviously in pain, which luckily is not too often, I share some of my morphine with her too -- she recognises the phial and the 29 ga hypo and meows and comes running and rubs her cheek against my hand and purrs. Cats can get allergies just like people, and chlorphenamine and dexchlorphenamine in particular work for them at half of the human dose. You can squirt the liquid in their mouth, give them tablet in cat treats or put them in their mouth or whatever. lf any of the cats sneezes or paws at their nose I have a thick chlorphenamine liquid which I daub on their paw or put on my finger and they lick it off. Same with ferrets -- I have a friend who dissolves bromodiphenhydramine in water and then mixes the solution into the apple-flavoured liquid they get for a treat. The meloxicam works better for the arthritis the cat has than the naproxen for some reason. Yesterday I tried a dose of tripelennamine by itself and it was obviously at least a moderate euphoriant and I think I may start mixing up Blue Velvet for her the next time she needs morphine and preload or mix in orphenadrine, which also works in animals and which certainly caused pleasure in my cat when I gave it to her and the first time she had it -- when she jumped up on the counter and ate a tablet of it.
I have seen combination products of naproxen with doxylamine and naproxen with diphenhydramine as sleep aids similar in concept to Tylenol PM. There are also naproxen with codeine analgesic combinations available in some markets, as well as a few others which contain dionine, dihydrocodeine, and in one case dextropropoxyphene.
I take 500 mg PO tid of naproxen as part of the default daily regimen for chronic pain which includes multiple types of arthritis of the spine and other damage there. I have been taking omeprazole and misoprostol in conservative doses once a day to protect my stomach. When I have an infrequent attack of the gout, I maintain that and add the quinine and a couple of other anti-gout agents which we have been trying out by mouth, and then for attacks of bad pain with it, will add another 500 mg of naproxen PO and inject 15 mg of meloxicam, 36 mg of ketorolac, and 32 mg of hydromorphone with 100 mg of tripelennamine.
The tablets I have around here are the long thin yellow 500 mg Grünenthal filmtabs that come 100 in a box . . .
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* There is naproxen, naproxen sodium, and a much rarer product I have not seen in a while is naproxen magnesium. In addition to the free acid and the two salts, there are also more salts including naproxen potassium, lithium, rubidium, and calcium as well as naproxen copper do exist but I have not seem them marketed as products..
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