Low Dose Naltrexone

[glochessum]

I have been reading up on this and it seems to have positive results.

Is it available in the UK?

Has anyone tried it?

[LindseyMid]

There currently is hardly any evidence as to whether it works as a treatment for Fibro. I rechecked the medical database PubMed just now and, of the 2 papers relating to LDN and Fibro, one was a discussion and the other was a pilot study. The pilot study actually found that although LDN got positive results when treating people diagnosed with Fibro, how well someone responded could be predicted by a baseline ESR result. This is a blood test checking for inflammation. It should not be positive in someone with Fibro who does not have another diagnosis explaining this, so I am dubious as to whether the patients that responded to LDN in the pilot study had been accurately diagnosed in the first place.

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/194...

The topic of LDN came up at a recent conference in Edinburgh I spoke of and Dr Charles Shepherd of the ME Association agreed that there was currently little to no evidence that it works for these conditions. That doesn't mean that there might not be in future, although there are concerns about what it is treating, as I mentioned.

It isn't available on the NHS as a treatment for Fibro as far as I know. There are private clinics prescribing it - I am aware of one in Glasgow - but I would personally hesitate to put my money on an unproven drug.

[glochessum]

Oh that's such a shame, it looked so good

[AnnaW]

Well. I spoke to GP and told me that kind of drug can be prescribed only by specialists, for example:rheumatologist.

[Sue15197]

I was very interested in this question, so did a lot of research like LindseyMed. I found this link here particularly interesting. Never heard of T3 aiding fibro before.

This here, I found good to read as I have all of them:

""There is significant overlap between the symptoms of hypothyroidism (low thyroid hormone production), depression, chronic fatigue, and Fibromyalgia. Patients with low thyroid hormone production who have been treated with T3 for depression have had some improvement in symptoms.""

[EmC1]

I've been researching LDN too. I'm hoping to try it myself before I rule it out. Did you try it in the end glochessum? I've spoken to people in Australia, UK and America who've been using it successfully. It treats the fibro not just the symptoms and is low cost and safe.

The only reason they aren't doing proper trials is because the pharmaceutical companies who fund these don't stand to make any money because it is a cheap, generic drug.

Em x x x

[glochessum]

Hi Em,no I haven't tried it yet. Seeing the doctor Tuesday, will ask about it then.

[glochessum]

I've been reading up on it again and now I'm not sure if it's a pill or injection.

[Hidden]

Hi I've just joined on here, I have hashimotos disease and use the other forum, i have come on here to learn more about fibro 1 because of the connections with thyroid probs and 2 because a very good friend of mine has it and I'd like to learn more so I can help her. I just wanted to say that firstly the connection with fibromyalgia and either low t3 or at least needing more t3 than the average joe seems to make a lot of sense, and also I've looked into LDN and its certainly a very impressive drug!! There is a group on Facebook called beating thyroid disease with LDN and even if you don't have thyroid probs I'd recommend looking on the group as its full of LDN info for anyone who might want to learn more x sarah