Glad you did the right thing. Don’t listen to that other prick. Can’t believe he even said what he did! Let him deal with the real risk he’s putting himself at with his addiction.
Tramadol instant release should last 4-6 hours. That’s not taking into account your tolerance. Obviously the higher the tolerance the less time it will last.
Half life is different, it’s how quickly half the serum concentration of the drug is eliminated from your system and it is different for everyone as we all have unique metabolisms. They do give general numbers so this is what I’ll use for this explanation.
Tramadol has a good few metabolites, the two main ones are O-desmethyl-tramadol and N-desmethyl-tramadol with the former being pharmacologically active. It’s excreted through the kidneys mainly. Tramadol has a half life of about 6 hours whereas O-desmethyl-tramadol has a longer half life of about 8 hours.