Help treating chronic pain

[rocko]

Hi guys back again.

I've been in and out of hospital for the last 6 months due to pain problems and they had me on constant IV paracetamol which worked OK for my pain problems. When they discharged me from hospital they prescribed me Tramadol again and I'm getting the same problems again. Sometimes it works better on an empty stomach other times I need to eat an hour before hand to 'help' it. It's an odd one. I'm looking on this site to find ways to enhance its effect, the same way people are trying to get high off it just to get it to work better for treating my pain.

I do have something else at home, a buprenorphine pain patch which is 5mcg, but it doesn't really do anything. Will it help enhance the Tramadol or is there other things I can do/try? What are people's methods when they take Tramadol to get the best out of it, step-by-step? I hate asking because I'm not looking to get high, but help my pain levels, and seems looking to get 'high' is the only way to do this, if that makes any sense.

Today, I took 50mg this afternoon 1.5hrs after lunch and the pain killing effect kicked in within 40mins after taking it and lasted about 1.5hrs. Then nearly 2hrs later I took another 50mg and the effects didn't kick in until nearly 2hrs after dosing but the pain relief lasted slightly longer and for about 2hrs maybe 3. I then took another 50mg in the evening and that didn't work until 2hrs later and then it only lasted for 30 mins. In the past when I used Tramadol I could one or two and they the effects would last 4-6hrs. These days I'm lucky if it will last an hour. The pain levels are about the same still, and I haven't used Tramadol constantly the whole time I've had these pain issues - I've had a couple of years break where I was on antidepressants for moderate pain but they were rubbish I will admit. It seems since coming back to Tramadol it just doesn't work the same anymore. I'm trying to figure out why, and what I can do to improve that, as like I said in the above posts; opiates aren't really good for me because of side-effects.

thanks

 

[Swain]

Maybe the dose is too large? What about taking half a dose..hnow does that make you feel?

 

[madog11]

I have moved this to a thread of it's own. We prefer not to bump old threads and I think you'll get better responses with it on it's own thread.

 

[Znegative]

So it sounds like you want to potentiate your tramadol..

Well, there are deffinately several things you can try, and you might want to take a look here for some more ideas. Most of the desired, opiate effects actually comes from tramadol's metabolite O-desmethyltramadol, which is a much more potent mu opioid agonist than tramadol is itself. By taking certain supplements or medications, you can increase the metabolism of tramadol into O-desmethyltramadol, which will bring upon the narcotic activity you're looking for. The most common way to do this would be to drink White Grapefruit Juice, it's a CYP2D6 inducer.

Also, please know that with increasing the rate of absorption, you also increase your risk of a seizure with tramadol. I think that the best idea would be to talk to your doctor about switching to a more effective pain medication, that doesnt run a risk of seizures or seretonin syndrome.

 

[ErgicMergic]

Is pain undertreated in the UK? IV paracetemol/APAP?? Here in the States, I'm sure they would have given you IV Morphine or Dilaudid for severe pain, at least IV Demerol, and send you home with 20 Vicodin or Percocet, not tramadol. Tramadol is usually given by orthos for minor pain.

You can definitely get some more opioid activity out of tram, just "stagger" the dose. Search on BL for this.

 

[tricomb]

See the chronic pain megathread, in my signature.