I've been on pain medication since 2007. First it was tramadol until I had to stop taking it because of seizures. Then I started on Durogesic which I was on for 10 years until I was forced off it. Both those didn't trigger my RLS when they wore off. I'm now on Targin and when it wears off my RLS gets really bad. I've had trouble sleeping sometimes but it's not because of any of those medications. I've read about Kratom but it's not something I can get here. I'd try it if I could get it though.
Buprenorphine, called Subutex in Australia 2 mg sublingual is the easiest form to adjust and works in seconds.
A very safe opioid it hangs onto less receptors in the brain .
My GP Dr Tim Amos is happy to talk to other doctors about how tho assess buprenorphine for RLS patients.
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Buprenorphine has saved my life and I feel totally normal 24 hour coverage.
I am happy to talk to you on the phone.
If you do go down this path do reach out so I can talk you through the first few days.
I have slept like a baby since the first night and it is not a drug type sleep it is normal I lie down close my eyes and I’m asleep in minutes absolutely amazing. I just don’t move I love it.
It's called subutex here as well. Temgesic is aslo known here. Lots of people in the UK are now reporting that they have been given either Subutex or temgesic for their RLS.
All drugs to assist with severe RLS cause nasty withdrawal symptoms. So. In effect they are all 'handcuff' drugs. However many of them also cause augmentation. Opiates do not but the side effects of Opiates & potential increase in tolerance is a problem. Bup doesn't hv those side effects & increased tolerance is not issue. For those of us who will hv to be on drugs for the rest of our lives anyway, your comment doesn't make sense.
I can appreciate that you want something that both helps with your pain and doesn't cause problems with sleep or RLS.
I wouldn't question the effectiveness of Kratom in doing that. I read that it is effective for pain and RLS, hence presumably sleep as well.
You have to be aware though that unlike pharmaceutical products it is unregulated which means that it may not come in a form which has a consistently measured dose and no guarantee of quality. Since it doesn't involve a doctor's prescription you wouldn't be monitored by a doctor.
Some people are now finding buprenorphine, a regulated pharmaceutical, useful for RLS and presunably for pain.
It is difficult however to get a prescription in Australia. There is an Ausralian member of this forum who can get it though.
When I was on Durogesic the patches made me have a bad reaction to my skin and I would scratch where they were applied. I got switched to Norspan which is buprenorphine. It did not help with the pain as I was on a high dose of Durogesic and the Norspan was no where near the same dose. So I asked to go back on Durogesic and I put up with the skin reactions. 10 years later i was forced off the patches so I doubt I would get a prescription for Norspan now. I'm currently on Targin and it works well until it wears off.
I have chronic lower and upper back pain. The lower back pain is from a bad fall I had over 20 years ago in 1999. In 2002 I had my son and a year later is when my back pain started to get worse. Doctors said me carrying my son was aggravating it and I had to stop picking him up. I've had a few more falls since then. I was on tramadol back in 2008 and had a seizure which caused 2 fractures in my upper back when I fell. It was hard getting off the tramadol and it took a month and 4 seizures later to be off it for good. I have been to specialist doctors and nothing can be done to fix my back. I have crushed discs in my lower back and disc degeneration. That's the reason for the pain medication. The RLS started in 2008 along with symptoms of interstitial cystitis. I've had one doctor say the RLS and IC is linked to my back but not sure really. I'm sick of living with pain and don't want to rely on all these medications but for now it's what gets me through each day. I've been very lucky to have a good doctor who understands and explains why I have the pain I do.
I should have written in my last reply, "opiates are NOT necessarily appropriate fior all types of pain." - sorry.
Also sad to hear about your back pain.
Although relatively less serious than yours, I also have spinal degeneration and have some chronic nerve pain. A couple of years ago it became acute and I couldn't stand or walk for more than about 30 seconds before it became unbearable.
Luckily this was brought under control with a course of an anti-inflammatory - Naproxen, and gabapentin. I was prescribed an opiate, but I only tried it a couple of times - it had no effect whatsoever. Opiates aren't particularly effective for nerve pain I'm afraid.
I also had acupuncture, osteopathy and physiotherapy which helped.
I still take the gabapentin, still have some nerve pain but I'm not aware of it most of the time.
Chronic pain can be helped with a multidisciplinary appraocj i.e. not just medicatiosn but physiotherapy and psychological therapies.
We're not talking about opiate abuse. We're the ones that need it. Badly. Low dose, just to get rid of the awful 'urge to move' feeling that keeps us awake and wears us out. Day after day.
One comment sounded like straight up abuse. Hey i know because i got addicted to them for years. Ruined my marriage and ruined my life. Thank God I found kratom for my chronic pain and got me away from opioids. Anytime that someone can replace evil Big Pharma drugs with something safer and better. Why wuldnt they🤷
Oh and i suffer from severe Rls. I have since i was a kid. Iy was so bad before kratom I even had it during the day and up in my arms. I know all about RLS!!
EXACTLY! Our dose is so small, it's highly unusual to find one of us that abuses them. Even those who use them for chronic pain, most do not abuse them. Like alcohol, most people can have one and leave the rest. There are few who can't. But with these meds, they can truly give us quality of life. It is rare indeed for an RLS patient to become a drug addict because theya re receiving a micro-dose of opioids.
Why is every one defending your opiate addiction.all I said was they help make RlS worse.
That's why they keep switching you.
Trust the drs. They don't care they stop medicine..
I'm leaving this group too many drug pushers try this take that. Fuck you your not drs.
Try stopping your Kratom and you will see those invisible hand-cuffs, just like every other drug. Your acting like you know what's best for everyone. our wrong. Your undermining the goal of our Foundation! This is ignorance! Kratom is good if your in a jam, but it's not a permanent solution unless your going to use it several times a day and willing to keep taking more and more because you build a tolerance fast. Up to u! Big Pharma exists for a reason. I know they can be dirty, but the natural foods and homeopathic markets are too.
The way you are pushing Kratom you sound like an addict. Tramadol is the only thing that worked for my RLS. I would have killed myself if it hadn't been for finally being able to sleep after starting tramadol.
"Salvia divinorum and Mitragyna speciosa ("Kratom"), two unscheduled dietary supplements whose active agents are opioid receptor agonists, have discrete psychoactive effects that have contributed to their increasing popularity. Salvia divinorum contains the highly selective kappa- opioid receptor agonist salvinorin A; this compound produces visual hallucinations and synesthesia. Mitragynine, the major alkaloid identified from Kratom, has been reported as a partial opioid agonist producing similar effects to morphine. An interesting minor alkaloid of Kratom, 7-hydroxymitragynine, has been reported to be more potent than morphine. Both Kratom alkaloids are reported to activate supraspinal mu- and delta- opioid receptors, explaining their use by chronic narcotics users to ameliorate opioid withdrawal symptoms."
I've been on Dihydrocodeine for around 20 years. It's true that I have insomnia, but at least I can lie still when I'm awake instead of throwing myself about the room nearly insane, when my best option seems to be suicide, anything, anything, to make it stop. I have thanked God many times for these opiates, for without them I would have been gone long ago.
I decided many years ago that even if told they would take 10 years off my life I would accept that because quality of life, not quantity, is what counts.
Kratom did not work for me. I have primary RlS and taking Opiates for chronic pain for 15 years. Dr. cuts me off after quick taper leaving me in agony with zero quality of life due to the "war" in on drugs bullcrap. I've tried ever form of kratom, red vein, gold, green, vials of concentrate, tinctures. Taste is vile. Trying to even get one dose down is like a trick from Houdini. Tried every YouTube vid. Even if I got it down, it didn't help anything but plug my gut up. I ended up in hospital with small bowel obstruction, horrible thing to go through. I feel like I might as well bend over and have everyone give it to me!! So screwed over.... Life ruined by Opiates. Period. Kratom was no help for me but lots swear by it.
Kratom gives me akathesia unless I does several times a day. Methadone has very few side effects. I will stick with Methadone for sure. But I can't really tell what your post is about. If your asking something or telling us something about opioids affecting sleep. I fall asleep without problems at all.
I tried it and it helped some but did not by any means stop my RLS. When I stopped taking it I whent through withdrawal almost as bad as opiates withdrawal.
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