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Opioids need help with stepping down from loperamide

mindash

Greenlighter
Joined
May 3, 2008
Messages
39
:?i've been on high dose loperamide daily now for a year and a half (144mg a day) and now am finding it impossible to get off not to mention the WD is somewhere between bupe and methadone. does anyone have any experience with tapering from such a prolonged high dose of loperamide and what do you recommend i do as far as how often to taper and by how much? :(i have to do this or im gonna end up dead from colon cancer more than likely so please understand this is a sincere post. thank you
 
well i was off of opiates for about 3 months and had a tooth ache so i took 20mg of hydro and it sent me back into full blown WD's again and not wanting to be high on opiates anymore not to mention lope being so affordable and long acting i began taking it so as not to experience WD and i just never got around to stopping it, as soon as it wears of roughly 24 hrs after dosing im back in hellish WD and i didnt realize until it was too late that lope has such a long and intense WD to it.
 
There are already quite a few threads on this issue, here are some:
Actually addicted to Loperamide
Loperamide withdrawal.... horrible... suggestions please!!
Loperamide Withdrawal

Try to ignore any posts saying an addiction to loperamide is impossible and just read the helpful ones :). Some people like to say lope can't be dependence causing other than maybe causing a bit of diarrhea when you quit because it doesn't cross the blood brain barrier, but that is not actually correct, lope does in fact cross the BBB, it is just usually mostly removed quite quickly. But not all of it is removed and it can vary from person to person, plus if you are taking huge doses that makes a difference, as the body can't remove it all from your brain.

Hopefully those threads can be of some help.

As for a taper, I would recommend if you are having that much trouble and you have plenty of time you try a taper of about 30% a week, that means 30% of whatever dose you are currently on, rounded to the nearest easily measurable amount. So if you are taking 144mg/day, drop it to 100mg, then a week later to 70, then 50, 35, 25, 18, 12, 8, 6, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0. That will take about 3 months or so. If you want to do it faster you could try something like: 100, 70, 50, 25, 15, 10, 6, 4, 2, 0, each week, or dropping every couple of days instead of once a week. Or if you want to do it slower you could try dropping by 20% every week. See how you feel and adjust it as you go along.
 
I agree with all that SD has to say, though since it has a pretty long half life, you might want to either reduce your dose by a little less than 30%, or take a little longer to stabalize at each lowered dosage. I can imagine loperamide would cause some rather long and unpleasant withdrawals. I've twice taken similar sized dosages and there was definately some CNS action that went on, plus the duration is pretty impressive.
 
:?i've been on high dose loperamide daily now for a year and a half (144mg a day) and now am finding it impossible to get off not to mention the WD is somewhere between bupe and methadone. does anyone have any experience with tapering from such a prolonged high dose of loperamide and what do you recommend i do as far as how often to taper and by how much? :(i have to do this or im gonna end up dead from colon cancer more than likely so please understand this is a sincere post. thank you

Colon cancer is the least of your worries. I would be worrying about a fecal impaction.

I was addicted to heroin for seven years and during that time I would do shots of heroin mixed with hydromorphone. Then I decided to clean up and got on Methadone. 3 years on 100mg and still going. None of those opiate and opiods, none would compare to a few milligrams of Lopermide in terms of shutting down my lower digestive tract.
 
^^^
What Guido said... How are you even managing to get anything through your digestive system??!! I blame loperamide for some of the worst opioid related constipation ever. Like... I thought I was going to have to go to the emergency room. I've never experienced such pain in my life. Did you have trouble with that?! Loperamide is a huge help in WDs... so I don't doubt its' ability to be addictive at all...
Hope everything's going okay! Take Znegative's advice :>
 
thx for the info and links, much appreciated. as for digestion i just dont eat much, what i do eat tends to be high in fiber and what not and the occasional enema comes in handy but i dont have too much of an issue even if sit down and eat an entire pizza. my insides have always managed well with large ammounts of...stuff? and as son as the lope begins to wear off between doses everything usually comes out without any issue
 
ahh you are lucky. maybe it was the loperamide after all the heroin that fucked me up...cuz i dont eat much either. which also maybe was part of the problem..
 
I agree with all that SD has to say, though since it has a pretty long half life, you might want to either reduce your dose by a little less than 30%, or take a little longer to stabalize at each lowered dosage. I can imagine loperamide would cause some rather long and unpleasant withdrawals. I've twice taken similar sized dosages and there was definately some CNS action that went on, plus the duration is pretty impressive.
Yeah, that's why I suggested a few different taper options depending on how long someone wants to spend on the taper. One could taper even slower and go down by, say, 10% every 2 weeks, or 20% every 4 weeks, but that would literally take years, so I figured the 30% once a week option was best since it would only take a few months but shouldn't be so fast as to be unbearable. The OP said they were concerned about getting of the lope quickly. And of course, as I mentioned, it's important to adapt the taper as you go along. If you cut the dose and then it seems like way too much, raise it back up a little bit and stabilize there for a couple weeks until you feel ready to drop it again. Or, if you cut it and feel fine, you can make your next cut sooner.
 
pill form and so fr ive dropper 15mg 3 days ago and so far so good. i dont expect to notice any discomfort until i prob hit the 80mg mark
 
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