Would like to hear about anyone’s experience with Tramadol.
I have had Zero luck with all the regular meds for rls. I just have so many side effects. I was having some luck with Tramadol and would only take if rls got real bad, but the last time it GAVE me restless legs! Not only that but it made my legs hurt too!
Here I am awake again at 2:30 in the morning, it’s exhausting!
Would appreciate amy thoughts Thanks
It's unlikely that the tramadol is actually giving you RLS. I would suspect that you are you are taking some sort of trigger that is setting off the Heeby Jeebies.Various medications and many foods/ drinks will also be triggers.
It might be an idea to look closely at what you are putting into your body and try eliminating any potential culprits.
A food diary has been very helpful to many people.
Good luck.
Thank you 💜
Hi, sorry to hear you're having such difficulty.
By "regular meds" I presume you mean either dopamine agonists or gabapentinoids.
When these have failed then the next biomedical option is an opioid, Tramadol being an example.
It does appear that you'te only taking Tramadol now and again. There is, I believe, some evidence that Tramadol can cause augmentation or rebound that could make RLS worse.
This is a possibility, but I think unlikely since you're only taking it now and again.
An experiment you could try is to stop/start the tramadol to see of there is any connection between trmadol and your symptoms. If the symptoms only occur when you take it and not when you don't then - - -
Madlegs idea of there being some other trigger may be another possibility. This may be a food element but there other possibilities.
Looking at your RLS more generally, I'm afraid I nave no personal experience to offer, but biomedically, I have read that opioids are an option for RLS when the regular meds have failed. These can be taken regularly.
However, in this case the suggested opioids are potent ones, not weak ones like tramadol or codeine.
There are other substances that may help with RLS, some people use Kratom. Read more about this in this forum.
The other is medicinal cannabis. It is possible to obtain a prescription for this, but this is not straightforward. A lesser alternative is to buy a "CBD" product with a relatively high THC content.
I hope you are aware of the two most recommended measures for RLS that aren't drug based are iron therapy and the elimination of aggravating factors.
Here's some information about iron therapy.
sciencedirect.com/science/a...
You can read more about aggravating factors in this forum.
I can only guess what you're going through at this time. It does sound as if you are struggling to get your RLS under control. It would be great if there were a treatment available that's 100% effect that had zero side effects.
Unfortunately, that's currently unrealistic. For a lot of people, I guess, it's a constant balancing act between symptoms and side effects and what level of each you feel you can bear. Some might view this as a battle.
Obviously, with RLS you would hope to return to what you consider "health" or "normal". Sorry to say this isn't likely with RLS a life long (currently incurable) condition.
In which case, as well as seeking biomedical solutions for dealing with your RLS and it's consequences, you could consider other non-physical strategies.
A good approach to this is called a "problem solving" approach. As applied to health conditions this approach consists of
1) Identifying what problems the health condition is causing or what "needs" it raises.
2a) Formulating a goal for each of these individual problems/needs i.e. what you are hoping to achieve.
2b) Identifying what actions you can take in order to achieve your goals. A plan .
3) Carrying out the actions.
4) Evaluating the outcomes of the plan. e.g. were the goals realistic/unrealistic, were the actions effective, what more is needed, what else would help etc.
This model is used in many fields but has been broadly adopted into health care in the UK since at least the early 1980s.
It is a "patient centred" approach rather than a focussing on the "condition".
For example not sleeping is an obvious problem/need for most RLS sufferers. The "goal" would be what you hope to achieve in relation to that.
The actions that you can carry out need to be effective, so some help and some information is needed. In professional health care actions must be based on "the best available" evidence. Which I believe is a good standard to aim for.
One action may be to seek a medical prescription. There are other options!
My apologies if this a little long winded and lacking in practical detail, but I hope it gives you some ideas which may help generally.
Manerva, where can you buy CBD with a high THC content in the UK?
You can't, it's illegal.
Sorry I took your reference to it in your reply to Nosleepatall out of context.
Don't apologise. What I wrote was that it is an alternative, what I didn't write was that in some states it's legal, but in others, it's not.
It's not legal in the UK.
Nosleepatall lives in the US, where in some states, it is legal.
You can now, it's legal. I bought from a group on Facebook, I will look for the name and let you know if you have not already found it yourself by now. I've tried it too low but will try High THC Content now and gradually get rid of all chemicals....
Thank you💜
I haven’t tried Tramadol for my RSL but I do take Tamgesic (Buprenorphine) 0.2 x 2 at night plus one Sifrol (Pramipexole) 0.250mg. For the first time my legs have improved.
I was given Tramadol for a bad back. The Dr. said it was not an opioid so would not give me trouble. Well two years after taking it Tramadol was put on the opioid list. I took it for 7 years and realized that I kept needing more and I was addicted. My body would "ask" for it at the same time every day. I decided I had to come off it. I had a different Dr. who said I would need to go to a rehab place to get off. I did it on my own by lowering very slowly. Even so it was a nightmare that I don't want to go through again. Don't take it. And it doesn't help RLS anyway.
When all else has failed, both Dr Early and Dr Buchfuhrer have prescribed low-dose methadone for some patients. I am one of those patients. My life has been given back to me by a prescription of only 10 mg per day. I will probably have to take it for the rest of my life. I greatly prefer that, than being unable to sleep.
Same here, thought I was the only one!! I have been up to 400mg per day since scar tissus removal in 2013 and causing nerves damaged in both legs and since 2014 wide awake, started at 1am to gradually built up to now 7am, then I sleep up to 1, 2 or 3pm and sometimes no sleep at all for 48hrs, 60hrs and recently 72hrs, very tired and frustrated...Gradually decreased to 200mg per day, with no sleep at all at night... complete sleep disorder
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