Low dose naltrexone

[Bunce]

Just wondering has any one had any experience of low dose naltrexone for nerve pain?

[Hidden]

In their own trials it shows promise.. but it is administered with a low dose opioid in addition to the drug itself for success in their trials. The stories are pretty impressive on their website but they chose which ones to put there. They are selling the drug to us. I am encouraged enough to ask my doctor about this before I accept the treatment of steroids that I am about to. =) Thanks for bringing this one up. =)

[earthwitch in reply to Hidden]

LDN is an opiate antagonist. I don't understand why would you even consider administering it with an opioid?

[earthwitch]

Yes, I use LDN. Not specifically for nerve pain, though I do have considerable nerve compression problems and pain from ankylosing spondylitis which is why I take the LDN. Before I started, I was taking maximum doses of codeine that really wasn't touching my pain. I'd been thinking about LDN but had been put off by knowing I couldn't take any kind of opiate pain killer while taking LDN. I had to come off the codeine at one point (when I was too sick to keep anything down - even meds) and decided that the codeine withdrawals were so bad I was never going back on it, and luckily my GP was happy for me to try LDN.

What it does for me, is it definitely does something to endorphins and really messes with my pain responses, so even though my head kind of knows that I should be in pain, I don't actually experience it as being anywhere near as much pain as it probably should be, given the damage in my spine. So that means that paracetamol is now the only painkiller I can take (and that I actually need). LDN for me also does seem to calm down the autoimmune disease process as well, so for both of those reasons (modifying pain response plus calming down autoimmune disease) it works quite well for me. I don't know how well it would work for pure neuro pain that isn't a result of an autoimmune condition. But, its a relatively cheap medication, so if you can get your GP to prescribe it, and if you can get yourself off any other opiate meds, then its probably well worth a try.

[Hidden in reply to earthwitch]

I read their website directly and they administer both.

[earthwitch in reply to Hidden]

which website?

[Hidden]

conquerchiari.org/subs%20on...

[Hidden in reply to Hidden]

I really hope that the link worked. It said that the two combined would work well. I did notice that it's from 2004. I'm not trying to start an argument at all. I just looked it up and saw this. I am willing to go with updated information, of course. These were the earliest trials and I am thinking that it was meant to be used in this manner which doesn't make a lot of good sense to me either. (sad face) I would really like to see a non narcotic treatment that works incredibly well so we can go about our lives without much pain and have a clear head as much as you and the rest of us want to. I think that what happens is that the chronic pain reaches higher than the level that is maximum and becomes acute pain so it has to be knocked down with a narcotic so it can be dealt with using the usual things like toradol and Lodine, and the many other medicines that are commonly given for arthritis. It just wont work until we knock that peak down.