Does Anyone Take Valium for RA.

[mattcass]

Hi All, Someone said that Valium helps you to relax if are having a bad attack of RA they also said they take it with strong painkillers like morphine based meds, This I am not sure about this I refuse to take any morphine based drugs because they made me so ill in Feb, Mind you over the last couple of days even now, I would have gratefully taken anything it was so bad I just wanted something to put me to sleep like a injection and when I woke up and it would be away. what a difference a week makes. Matt

[fionam]

I read in the paper last week that someone who was prescribed Valium for something else found that it helped with their RA symptoms but I haven't got any personal experience of this.

[mattcass in reply to fionam]

hi fionam thanks for your reply better talk to my GP,Matt

[Hidden]

Hi Matt..definitely helps. I have taken maybe only once or twice....just relaxes everything and the pain eased...made for a great nights sleep and so much less stressed... Pity it is so very addictive

Katie x

[mattcass in reply to Hidden]

Hi KatieC the bit about a great nights sleep sound fine to me. Matt

[cuddles64]

Hi mattcass, I have taken 10mg of morphine and can honestly say it worked wonders on my pain, all the others haven't even come close, apart from the odd steroid injection. I am sorry to hear you are suffering. An aquaintance gave me 6 morphine tablets about 3 months ago and now I only have 1 left and asked my GP for some more and he said no I would like to go back on Prozac or some other drug like it. I hope you fell better soon hun. x

[Dogrose in reply to cuddles64]

Amytriptiline is similar to Prozac and can help with pain, it is certainly good at knocking you out for the night. XXX

[earthwitch in reply to Dogrose]

Amitryptylline has definitely been proven to have a good pain modifying action at lower doses than would be normally used for depression. There is quite a lot of medical research out there on it, which is one of the reasons why it is so commonly given out for pain control. Prozac and some of the other antidepressants can also have a fairly good effect on pain, but they are much harder meds to withdraw from and because you can find that you get a rebound of symptoms when you try to withdraw, I'd probably only take Prozac or one of the others if I was also clinically depressed, or if the amitryp really wasn't working.

Pain control doses of amitryp are generally 10 mg to 50 mg a night, whereas antidepressant doses are more like 75 -150 mg a day. The research shows that there is no extra benefit of going above 75 mg for pain control, so you would only need to go higher if you were using it for depression.

[Tillytop]

Hello Mattcass

I was prescribed temazepam (similar to valium) to help me relax and to sleep but unfortunately, in my case, it did little to help. It did make me sleepy, but the (non-RA) "stuff" which was waking me up every few minutes, continued to do so. I took it for quite a while and it was only after I had struggled a lot to come off it, that I noticed the information leaflet said that it is only intended for short term use (like a couple of weeks I think). Having managed to wean myself off it I decided "never again". As for combining it with morphine - yikes! Obviously I'm no doctor but I would have thought it would be one or the other, rather than both!

I so understand why you don't want to take morphine again after your last experience and I see that Dogrose mentions Amitriptyline - which I believe isn't an opiate like morphine. I have recently been prescribed Amitrip for nerve pain and although it took a couple of weeks to kick in, it really does help me a lot - both during the day and I think it also helps me to sleep. (I say " I think" because I do also take morphine and another (non RA med) which make me sleepy too so I don't know for sure how much help with sleep the Amitrip would be on its own). From what I have read though, it seems to be quite widely used and maybe it might be something worth talking to your doctor about.

Really hope you can find something to help Mattcass.

Tillyx

[earthwitch]

I have valium 2 mg on hand for when I get really bad muscle spasms which is common in spondyloarthritis when inflammation isn't being controlled. As a muscle relaxant it can help me get a good nights sleep, and by relaxing me it can cut pain down a notch or two. I wouldn't think it would do anything for the underlying problem though.

The biggest issue with valium is that you get habituated to it very easy if you use it regularly - i.e. you get hooked on it, and need higher doses to get the same result. I have had it on prescription for probably at least 6 years now, but because I would only take it at most two or three times a month, its never been a problem for me. Another friend is now taking 10 mg at a time, and has a really hard job keeping to the 20 doses a month they are allowed by the doctor.

So in my case, its great to have it available, but it is of fairly limited use, and really what I want to be able to do is control the inflammation a whole lot better.

[summer32]

I find that in a bad attack of pain just one or two 2mg diazepam is enough to relax things down, I only needed them for a day or two. after 3 weeks of neck pain that wouldnt go x