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Opioids OTC Loperamide for Withdrawal... Amazing

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I did realize people had died from taking it! I am a true believer of taking this as well. Before I took any I researched potential dangers and effects and came across this:

Studies in morphine-dependent monkeys demonstrated that loperamide hydrochloride at doses above those recommended for humans prevented signs of morphine withdrawal. However, in humans, the naloxone challenge pupil test, which when positive indicates opiate-like effects, performed after a single high dose, or after more than two years of therapeutic use of IMODIUM® (loperamide hydrochloride), was negative. Orally administered IMODIUM® (loperamide formulated with magnesium stearate) is both highly insoluble and penetrates the CNS poorly.

And what is interesting is what is used in cases of overdose - same as an narcotic overdose:

If symptoms of overdose occur, naloxone can be given as an antidote. If responsive to naloxone, vital signs must be monitored carefully for recurrence of symptoms of drug overdose for at least 24 hours after the last dose of naloxone.
In view of the prolonged action of loperamide and the short duration (one to three hours) of naloxone, the patient must be monitored closely and treated repeatedly with naloxone as indicated. Since relatively little drug is excreted in the urine, forced diuresis is not expected to be effective for IMODIUM® (loperamide hydrochloride) overdosage.
In clinical trials an adult who took three 20mg doses within a 24 hour period was nauseated after the second dose and vomited after the third dose. In studies designed to examine the potential for side effects, intentional ingestion of up to 60 mg of loperamide hydrochloride in a single dose to healthy subjects resulted in no significant adverse effects.
 
believer18, i think that is fine. respiratory depression is noticeable in the heroic doses you may read about, maybe 50mg and up? i can't draw a line for you on that.
 
I started at 16mgs a week ago once a day. well actually starting to test it i took 2 pills then 2 more etc until i felt the WDs go away at 16mgs so far my taper has been ( each line is a day)
16
16
16
0 no need
14
13
9
actually went back up to 10 today because i was freezing with a jacket on and heater at 76. so now the trick is to taper from 10 hopefully dosing only every 2-3 days.
 
When is the best time to start taking the Immodium? Right now I am down dosing on heroin, I was originally doing 1-3 points a day, today ive done one, tomorrow a little less than a half point and then a percocet, and then I think I'm going to take my "jump off" and go cold turkey for the remainder. So should I be taking the loperamide then?
 
wait until your off everything mate, only then use loperamide. use it sparingly as its going to knock your tolerance out of the damn stadium.

not sure if you plan on using again, but if you do, keep that in mind.
 
^ It's an odd one regarding tolerance. I mean, you've got a really bloody potent mu-agonist that will probably saturate the GI opiate receptors at even moderate doses, yet it hardly crosses the BBB and when it does it's rapidly expelled. Presumably taking, say, 20 mg loperamide daily for a week would hugely down regulate GI receptors, whilst having a much lesser effect on CNS receptors. Or is receptor based tolerance generic across the board, regulated by changes in gene expression (or more direct forms of signalling?)?

If the former is the case then loperamide usage during opiate addiction could be used to down regulate GI receptors, reducing the GI-affect of other opiates (I.e. constipation). Of course the flip side would be much worse GI based withdrawal symptoms, and a lesser response to loperamide as a withdrawal aid.

On topic, it's up there with DXM as the ultimate withdrawal life saver.
 
i found dxm rather odd in opiate withdrawal, i think the negative effects were mostly due to the antihistamine it was 'contaminated' with. on the up sde, the symptoms of opiate cessation were diminished. although i found loperamide superior, and i didnt have the cognitive issues (i feel retarded in every possible way on dxm).

i have quite the objection to antihistamines, personally.

using loperamide daily, then sending yourself into withdrawal while using opiates to avoid gastrointestinal issues is... bizarre. sounds like a lot work.
 
While I have not used Loperamide for relief of recreational opiates, I have used it in a rare few cases when I ran out early of pain meds and had no other back up available(such as pods). I found that if I start using Loperamide after I run out of pain meds, it takes what seems like an entire day to start providing significant WD relief. I found that it worked best when you start on the Loperamide 1 day, or even 2 days, before you run out of your opiates.

To ensure that you do not get bowel impaction, I recommend using heavy mineral oil, at least 2 table spoons before bed. I have not had any success with other laxatives. Do not use mineral oil during the day or before a meal; wait several hours after your last meal of the day to dose. The reason is that the mineral oil can potentially block absorption of vitamins/nutrients if you consume your food/nutritional supplement after dosing mineral oil.

You can find ingestion grade mineral oil in virtually any pharmacy.
 
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i are spectre said:
i found dxm rather odd in opiate withdrawal, i think the negative effects were mostly due to the antihistamine it was 'contaminated' with. on the up sde, the symptoms of opiate cessation were diminished. although i found loperamide superior, and i didnt have the cognitive issues (i feel retarded in every possible way on dxm).

i have quite the objection to antihistamines, personally.

using loperamide daily, then sending yourself into withdrawal while using opiates to avoid gastrointestinal issues is... bizarre. sounds like a lot work.
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I think it seriously depends on the dosages consumed. When I initially used loperamide to ultimately taper off a near-5 year daily opioid regimen (~4 years of relatively low-dose, strictly therapeutic use followed by 1 year of increasingly recreational use and a rising tolerance), I found 60-90mg of DXM to substantially potentiate the loperamide and it made the transition easier.

I dosed loperamide in a manner to resolve about 80% of my withdrawal symptoms and used DXM and doxylamine to counter most of the remaining ones for the first 1-2 weeks. After that, I gradually tapered the loperamide and used doxylamine to assist in sleep and within about 1 month, I was off all opioids completely. I had chronic pain to learn to cope with and of course a degree of PAWS to address, but if you do the right things, those are certainly manageable.

I would never consider DXM alone on par with loperamide as a withdrawal/tapering aid, but I do think in the right context and doses, it has some utility. If someone tries to combat acute or especially post-acute withdrawals with high-dose DXM alone, it's just going to exacerbate some symptoms such as mental fogginess and others.
 
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i think i would use dxm if i had pure powder, but i cant stomach all those pills or syrup. i havnt even smelled syrup in probably 15 years, im sure a lot of other people here know why i avoid it. i could easily take a dose of pure dxm though and id imagine almost all withdrawal symptoms would dissipate.

i actually overdosed on dxm a long time ago after many, many doses for about a week. finally, one night at a party i slammed some in a coffee mug with another fellow and in minutes my heart was pounding, i was bright red and hotter than hell. i ran to my buddy upstairs on the couch and told him to watch my heart beat and take me to the hospital if it became worse bad. after that i remember losing control of my legs and ankles. my feet were twisting in all weird positions, like leg convulsions. lights out after that for a couple days. followed by a trip that lasted 2 weeks after that. not really on topic, but another reason why dxm makes me ill i suppose. i was not right for a year or two after that.

dxm did help for some weird reason as far as opiate withdrawal. what an odd compound. are you familiar with any other stereoisomers of opiates that act as NMDA agonists, safely?
 
Seriously the best way to overcome withdrawal hands down. Depending on your habit take 4-6, 2mg lope and you'll knock back 80% of the bad withdrawal feeling.
 
kaiserdood said:
Seriously the best way to overcome withdrawal hands down. Depending on your habit take 4-6, 2mg lope and you'll knock back 80% of the bad withdrawal feeling.
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If you're dependent on anything more than a few hydrocodone's a day or something equal to that, it's going to take waaayyy more lope than that to even touch your withdrawals.
 
12 tabs (24mg) did pretty well for me after a 10 year habit. jumped off about 4mg suboxone in the end. day 3-5, 12 tabs put a dent in, thats for sure.

half life is so damn long, it takes up to 6 hours to even notice sometimes. i know i used to dose and wait and wait, then dose more, but now i realize i was feeling fine from the initial dose, and just piled on far more than i needed, even making things worse.
 
shit..... it all makes sense now.......... they gave me immodium when i was detoxing at a rehab a couple of years ago and for whatever reason i was never able to figure out why that detox was the easiest one i had ever done. i was expecting a lot worse and ended up like 'wtf..... that was it ???!!!!'
the only thing different during that detox was the loperamide, nothing else. all the clonidine, lorazepam, etc i had tried during detoxes at my house.
 
Phat5o said:
shit..... it all makes sense now.......... they gave me immodium when i was detoxing at a rehab a couple of years ago and for whatever reason i was never able to figure out why that detox was the easiest one i had ever done. i was expecting a lot worse and ended up like 'wtf..... that was it ???!!!!'
the only thing different during that detox was the loperamide, nothing else. all the clonidine, lorazepam, etc i had tried during detoxes at my house.
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Yeah, but they didn't give you the kind of doses we're talking about here right? They probably gave it to you just to suppress the symptom of diarrhea in it's normal listed dosage on the package.
 
you dont need that much. you just have to wait a while, it takes around 10 hours to get full effects.

i used it for replacement of 4mg suboxone, i didnt need more than 24mg (12 pills)
 
i hear lope withdrawals are bad, i'm either stuck on lope, codeine or kratom.... and i switch up from day to day but how bad dose lope increase tolerance to other opiates? and how bad are withdrawals if done over a 2 month taper? I think i've only read of one person who said the lope withdrawals were terrible but i dont really want to have to go through all the withdrawal/PAWS bullshit if i switch over to immodium.

i also take omeprazole which despite debate, does dramatically increase the effects of loperamide for me, so is it going to be that much worse coming off lope now?

DXM doesn't do much compared to lope but it does help, anything more than 60mg though and i feel fucked up from the DXM which doesn't make anything easier.

and yeah serious habits require serious amounts of lope, which can be dangerous.

also anti histamines are known to cause restlessness so definitely use them cautiously in opiate withdrawal, they can ease your sleep a bit but also make your legs go fucking haywire during that sleep. I wouldn't use AHs in opiate withdrawal (seroquel maybe), i'd go for benzos instead.
 
^ that's a good point about antihistamines. I found doxylamine (which I don't get nearly as restless from like diphenhydramine) useful ONLY when combined with loperamide when in withdrawal because as you said, first-generation antihistamines can produce substantial restlessness which can be truly miserable during withdrawal!

I wouldn't recommend seroquel during withdrawal however because it is a rather potent anticholinergic as well. When I didn't have as much of a physical dependence, I found seroquel helpful during withdrawal because it would knock me out, but with a stronger physical dependence or larger habit, it probably would knock you out but leave you feeling more restless when awake. If no other options are available, it'd still be better than nothing as it'd probably help you get SOME sleep, but it'd be my last choice personally.
 
Hmm. I believe I have some Loperamide in the medicine cabinet. If only I knew it helped with w/d while I was actually withdrawaling.... sigh.
Anyways, thanks for the sound advice. I'll be sure to take some next time I'm feeling shitty.
Thanks again, pal. -
 
Day one hydrocodone, vikoprofen etc... I just took 16 2mg tablets. I'm a wuss I can't go it alone. And if I do I'm a miserable baby and unproductive as f***! Ahhhh crossing my fingers if it doesnt work ill take a ton of benadryl (not literally a ton) but enough to sleep through some of it. :'( if anyone has other suggestions let me know. -nessa
 
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