Codeine

[Soon70]

I experience REALLY bad nights about once or twice a week when I take 2 co-codamol 30/500 which work brilliantly. In between I wearily soldier on because I fear I could become addicted if I take them more than this amount. If I felt confident that addiction was unlikely by taking them say every other night then I would do so and this would make life more tolerable. It seems by the previous posts I could try this out. Of course the other fear is that they would not work as well if I took them more often than I currently do. I'm trying not to go down the dopamine agonist route which entails a 2 in 3 chance of augmentation. In my view a short term fix for a long term problem. Any comments would be much appreciated. Many thanks. Terri

[Hidden]

The more regularly you use them the more your body will develop tolerance and the more you will come to depend on them. Both these things are facets of addiction HOWEVER they both exist outside of an addiction:

IF I take an opioid regularly I will develop tolerance - everyone will. The body strives to maintain balance and will work to counter act ANY drug you take.

As they treat the RLS I will become dependant on them, as everyone will. You will become dependant on them to control the symptoms the same way a diabetic is dependant on insulin it does not mean you crave it.

If I start using more than recommended or start using them because it makes me feel better about my life and to dull psychological pain I may very well become addicted and abuse them. You will crave them, lie about your use, get annoyed if anyone questions you on your use, not everyone will.

As long as you are taking them for the RLS and not say because they make the day easier to tolerate then you shouldn't really have a concern about using them. My approach is to use as little as often so you can increase the dose when you become tolerant of them as opposed to taking a hefty dose now and when you become tolerant you have to make do!

I hope that is clearer than mud

[Pippins2 in reply to Hidden]

Good answer Raffs.I recently read a good article entitled Addiction v Dependence which outlines this very issue. Said if taking opiates for pain etc you can become dependent which is completely different to addiction. X

[Hidden in reply to Pippins2]

Yeah if you look at Johann Hari:

ted.com/talks/johann_hari_e...

and read his book:

wordery.com/chasing-the-scr...

you'll learn plenty!

There is a new movement in addiction research that is very interesting and a lot of good stuff to read if that sort of thing floats your boat.

[Pippins2 in reply to Hidden]

Thanks Raffs x

[jefro]

Could augmentation be caused because the drug is not the right one. My story is like almost every rls sufferers, as I tried all the usual drugs but as some helped a little I kept using them because I felt that little bit better. In my opinion if a drug helps say by 50% then I am taking 50% too much of that drug and my body will reject it eventually because it is not the right drug. Up until 3 years ago Ropinirole was the best drug that helped me but it was not the right drug and the dose was creeping up with less effect until my body rejected it and augmentation set in. I went to my GP's surgery and saw a new doctor who new a little about rls and contacted a neurologist to ask if my request for the Neupro patch would be OK. He suggested 2mg of rotigotine (which is the drug in the patch) to start and after a day I began to feel 'different'. Being an impatient old sod the next day I put 2 patches on making 4mg and WOW, I felt 'normal' with no sporadic body movements or pain. My GP checked if the 4mg was ok and I have been on it with no change of dose for 3 years. I know the drug and dose is what my body wants because occasionally I forget to put a patch on and all the old rls symptoms come back.

This is only my opinion and I, unlike a lot of knowledgeable people on this forum, can only relate to my experiences.