Did anyone see the news yesterday regarding TRAMADOL (ZYDOL), I wonder what the problem is now with this opiate,. It has been the main medication for chronic pain for quite a few years now, many of us rely on this medication to get through the day. We all know what med we will have too take if this one is taken of the market .
We negotiate our pain control and actions regarding chronic pain and its problems.
What has been going on with regards to this??.
All best
BOB
Was this on the BBC breakfast news, i just think it was a dig at being on long term pain killers which makes you addicted to them ! and not treating specific problems, this particular lady had curvature of the spine and had been prescribed tramadol since she was 14, and found some type of physio which helped to take her off them, she was only on 4 a day + some paracetamol (can't remember how many).
Hello Snappy
I am not sure what it was about, all that I know we are supposed to come of them for a period to let the body rest for them, this is normal for opiates.
I have been on this med now for about 20 years and I always try and rest from them when not in flareup. you do get some unpleasant contra-indications when off them so for most of the time go on a health and maintanence dose.
This would answerpart of my question thanks all the best
BOB
If I could come off opiates for "a rest" I wouldn't need to be on them in the first place.
If I stopped mine the withdrawal is horrendous, never mind the pain I take them for in the first place!
Slow or long acting formulations of many opiates are available (and that includes Tramadol) for precisely the reason that stopping them brings on pain which often needs much bigger doses to quieten down again!
This is the article for those interested.
I have been using tramadol for 13 years. I have become somewhat attenuated to them, but a while back I thought "they don't work any more" and stopped taking them.
That was when I found out that they did work. Not as well as they used to, but better than life without.
Hello and thank you efiwol for putting up the link. I have been on tramadol for so long, and it came to the point it was not strong enough, my GP started me on Fentynal patches, gradually increasing the dose and cutting out the Tramadol so as only to be used as a ' top up ' with Paracetamol for bad times. Then another GP changed all that ! Stopped increasing the Fentynal and told me I could take as many Tramadol as I wanted, went on to tell me I had reached the stage where addiction was not an issue. This Article on the BBC appears to be about young men in Gaza taking it as a recreational / anti depressant drug. I don't like them, but I could not function without them, and the fentynal and the paracetamol which does give the tramadol an extra boost plus the other drugs I take. I really hope we do not go through another co-proxamol fiasco, that was disgusting and very badly handled. I am certainly in agreement with you that they don't have the same effect as they used to, our bodies have adjusted to them, and the reason we take them has gradually worsened, not a good situation to be in without this little bomb being dropped onto us.
Hope I have not rattled on too much, I only intended saying thank you !
Seen BBC news on net, thanks. It would seem that we have problems regarding this like we had in the past with other pain control tablets. If they prevent this med where do we go from here the list is getting shorter and shorter, we are running out of meds to take if this one is taken of script. I may be overeacting I hope so it may be it is tablets that are on black market, I hope so.
Thanks Efliwol
BOB
,
I don't understand what you mean. Where is the suggestion that they will be taken off the market?
Opiates (including much stronger ones) are MUCH more widely prescribed now than they have ever been in the past. Tramadol has never been off-prescription anyway, (unlike Codeine!) making them Class C won't make any difference to prescribing - plenty of the drugs Doctors prescribe are class C, eg. Diazepam!
I get Class A drugs prescribed, the only difference I notice is I have to sign the extra box on the prescription when I get them from the Chemist.
I took them for about 15 years after some time on Codeine phosphate... for me, they worked fairly well, (but still caused me a LOT of Opiate Induced Endocrine problems!) but my condition has deteriorated and they simply weren't strong enough any more, however almost immediately I started them I realised they are not the wonder drug they were initially misleadingly sold as... they are possibly MORE addictive than other weak opiates and they are only about as effective as Codeine phosphate, certainly not much more, but despite the original advertising bumf claiming they were non-addictive, I found that they are even harder to come off (not nice - even when moving to another stronger opiate based drug!) (Due to the norepiniphrine reuptake effect presumably - Anyone who has taken Venlafaxine will know the feeling of withdrawal they give, which is just the same!)
ALL Opiates tend to become less effective after time, you simply get used to them, and tend to need more, so they are no different to others in that respect.
Hello Picton,
Depending on the area that you live prescribing can be very regional. What I understand from being prescribed in different areas pain control clinics and doctors have different ideas concerning what they will prescribe, many areas do not like to prescribe codeine phosphate because of there tendecy of causing severe constipation, they seem to have gone back to paracetamol, that they give with severe moderate pain control medications.
Personally I will have words with my GP to see what can be given if need arises, I have a problem with going any stronger in meds and will just have to use other techniques that I have been taught, knowing what the GP is going to say, also the specialist nurse may have further ideas.
I am at a loss with the specialist as my old one has left and I have seen several in last months.
It seems your area is more proactive in their meds then mine i suppose as a standard outpatient you can only go so far.and we get used to the tablets.
One thing that worries me is at later age I am in my 60s now ,is what they will do in the our final stages after we have got used to all these opiates I was in hospital not so long ago for an operation, morphine was given, it did not touch the sides
All the best
BOB
very true x
Hi Bob, I have recently received a book I ordered on-line called Defeat Neuropathy now - in spite of your doctor. I( have has p.n. for twenty or more years and the recommendations in this book (not selling anything) re drugs and lifestyle are really informative. Lots of letters from people who have followed the suggestions in this book and benefitted. I am optimistically giving it ago as it recommends defeating p.n. without drugs.Woosy123
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