low dose naltrexone for heroin withdrawals

[kaotic42]

Hey all, into hour 45 of an heroin withdrawal...

Been hearing a lot about ultra low dose naltrexone for reducing tolerance and withdrawal when coadministered with opiates but am wondering whether it would help to do very low doses actually DURING a withdrawal cycle...

Any thoghts? BTW, I know what naltrexone is and how it works so you can spare me that lecture lol

 

[ad lib]

TDS > Sober Living

 

[Serotonin101]

some people report it shortened there withdrawal perioid. made it more intense but shorter. I can't speak on the subject, but you could always take it to deter you from using. 25mg daily is sufficient to saturate all your receptors and you'll be less tempted to use knowing you won't get off. be careful once you get off it. I've known a few addicts who relapsed after naltrexone cleared their system. left them with a tolerance lower than baseline and now they're 6ft under.

 

[Swimmingdancer]

^Serotonin101 - they are talking about using WAY lower doses than that. (Like with "ultra low dose", "very low dose" and "lose dose" naltrexone, people use doses between 0.5mcg and 5mg - not opiate blocking doses).

kaotic42:
I have a blog here on Bluelight that goes into detail about this topic. I was going to use very low dose to low dose naltrexone for the post-acute phase of withdrawal (PAWS), but I've posted about studies where it was used during acute withdrawal as well (although they also gave it to the people while tapering off). I didn't use it during acute withdrawal myself though, I don't think there was any opioids in my system by the time I began the naltrexone.

I only used it for a short time, but I did find that in very low doses it helped with falling asleep (I don't know about staying asleep) and that it helped with my diarrhea. But beyond that it was hard to tell conclusively what it did.

Anyway, there is a ton of info on my blog so click here if you want to read it (go to the last page to find the oldest posts which have background info about studies and other people's experiences and such).

I stopped taking it because an opportunity for another treatment came up and I wanted to be able to tell which one was working or causing side effects and I wasn't sure if they would go well together, but I'm thinking of starting low dose naltrexone again soon since I still have PAWS and other issues (supposedly fibromyalgia) and want to give the naltrexone a proper trial.

For your situation, if you want to take it during acute withdrawal, do you already have it on hand or something? Because research and planning is needed and LDN is not usually fast/easy to obtain. You have to determine what a good starting dose for you individually might be, one that isn't going to be too high and seriously worsen your withdrawal (unless of course your goal is to get WD over as fast as possible and you don't mind suffering). A doctor can prescribe it but it has to be made specially at a compounding pharmacy. Some people do make their own solution out of 25mg pills but that takes some research to learn how to do properly and is not as reliable.

Hope you're feeling ok! I know you're probably not, but I mean hang in there and hopefully you're surviving alright . Let us know if you need advice or support with coping with cravings, depression, any of that stuff.

 

[Serotonin101]

if you wanna self dose ultra low dose or low dose naltrexone, dissolve the pill in an acidic solution and do liquid measurements. it allows you to accurately dose in micrograms similar to hoe CH knows his bupe dosages.

 

[footscrazy]

I've been a big proponent of ultra low dose naltrexone in the past. I used around 5 micrograms twice a day during the first year and a half of my daily opioid use, and I do feel like it greatly slowed down any tolerance increase. In my experience, ultra low dose naltrexone was most effective in preventing tolerance increase, rather than lowering tolerance once it was there. Because of that, my gut feeling would be that using it during withdrawals would not have a significant benefit. I think the benefit of using ULD naltrexone is using it during the addiction to prevent tolerance increase and in that way reducing withdrawals when you do stop.

I find it hard to be definitive about the benefit of ULD naltrexone in myself though because of the lack of a control state. Opioid tolerance is such a variable thing anyway, so it's impossible for me to tell whether it was the ULD naltrexone benefitting me, or if perhaps my tolerance would have raised that slowly without it. I think the unpredictable nature of opioid addiction between people, and even in the one person, does make it hard to give any concrete information about ULD naltrexone. What I've described is my personal experience, and you may find it does help you. I don't think there would be any harm in trying it, if you could make sure you're measuring your doses correctly.

 

[kaotic42]

Thanks for the info folks. I chickened out in the end - the reports I have read about PWDs sounded fekkin scary! I may start trying to do ULD Naltrex once I start taking gear again and I will report back on whether it reduced tolerance buildup/addiction onset.

And yes, I have 50mg x100 on hand that my ma got me for a previous detox

 

[Serotonin101]

there's a good tek if you will that describes how to dissolve those pills properly and create a solution of proper concentration for uldn. Google around for it, or it may be here in BL somewhere.