Opioids Long-term effects of medical opioids? (pain mgmt)

[Phat5o]

does anyone here have any idea about these effects with tramadol? with tramadol i notice a lot of these things a lot less. i take about 500mg on the average day. as opposed the past where i have been on oxy, hydros, morphine most of the time, i do not get sick as easily (i used to get sick a lot with suppressed symtpoms from the drugs though obviously) and i don't think my hormones are out of wack like that. if they were i'd probably get on a replacement therapy anyway.
i have also heard that with suboxone some of these side effects shouldn't be too harsh either. i got a good buddy that's a pro bodybuilder and he said suboxone doesn't affect him at all... of course he's on testosterone replacement but has been since before opiates and runs steroid cycles throughout the year. i have also been on suboxone for 2 years a couple of years ago but i felt lazy as shit the whole time. all i felt like was 2 years of PAWs that never got better so after that i got off for good for a couple of years and felt much better.
anyway i'm really interested in tramadol's effects on kidney/liver values and immune system, if anybody knows anything

this is an awesome thread btw

 

[SydneyGal]

If you can manage to elude the "big two" (overdose and addiction), opiates are generally benign. Many of the negative effects arise from injecting, using adulterated street dope or simply using them irresponsibly. Then there are the prescription combo drugs that contain acetaminophen, ibuprofen or others that can cause organ damage over time.

None of those risk factors apply to me, thankfully. I do take acetominophen as well, but luckily outside the US there are fewer drug formulations that stick them in your opioid pills, whether you need them or not. So I take acetominophen with the bupe when I have breakthrough pain, but can limit it to 4g a day even if it takes more then 4 doses of bupe to control the pain adequately. (Though that's very unusual for me, thank G-d, and generally only happens when my body devises some new way to attack itself.)

I've read medical journal articles stating that some opiates (methadone and oxycodone, for instance) can have negative effects on heart function in some people. This is the reason propoxyphene was discontinued. I'll have to find some sources for this.

Do you happen to know if that applies to bupe as well?

I do take note of the readings when they stick heart monitoring stuff on me in hospital visits, and my blood pressure has stayed largely the same; resting heart rate has gone up to around 70 bpm, but I'm a lot less fit than I used to be, so that probably explains it. Though would the kind of heart function changes that study found show up on heart rate and BP readings? Or is it something else?

In the meantime, use opiates as little as you can, take care of your health and you should be fine.

Yeah, good advice. Apart from side effects, I need the stuff to work when I have major flareups and operations, so over-using opiates isn't an option for me. I try everything else first -- heat packs, rest, waiting a bit to see if it passes -- and then only take opiates when I have to get things done and the pain's making it hard to do it. I came out of my last operation screaming in pain and they had to give me ketamine (which was awful, idk why anyone takes it for fun) because my opiate tolerance was too high... and I'm a lot more tolerant now than I was then. And there's another operation coming up. Crap.

 

[SydneyGal]

Thank you everyone for the awesome responses.

I have just one more question I hope someone might be able to answer:

If I was able to come off opiates for a while, how long does it take for the side effects to abate? Like how long would I have to stay off it to find out if my fatigue and memory issues are due to the bupe, or something else?

I'm not sure if I'll be able to come off them but I'm curious about how long I'd have to stay off them to know. I talked to a nurse about it yesterday, and it seems that because the pain I have is more like cancer pain than other chronic pain (though I don't have cancer, thankfully), my perception that I'm more functional on bupe than off it is probably accurate... but would be kinda nice to know for sure!