Paracetamol

[Hoochybaby]

Hi I have been taking pregabalin and codeine at night for a long time now with mixed success but th ref best I could hope for. My question is could I replace codeine ( I take two 30 mg tablets at night but suffer severe constipation) with Paracetamol and would it be beneficial. I also take pregabalin 175 mg each night and suffer severe insomnia. It’s a bad combination all round

I’m worried of being addicted to codeine after taking it so long. When I mentioned this to my doctor his response was that he had patients who had been on codeine a long time which didn’t help me!

Any thoughts would be appreciated

[LotteM]

I wouldn't worry about the addiction as long as you don't crave for it other than that it will relieve your symptoms.

Re the paracetamol, as we t is an otc drug, it is easy to try. Give it several days as you may get withdrawal from the codeine. And a few sleepless nights with symptoms.

However, in general paracetamol doesn't touch the rls symptoms of most people. And taking paracetamol long term is also not without drawbacks. A quick search came up with this review paper. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/298...

[SueJohnson]

You might want to try ambien for your insomnia. Naloxegol works for opioid induced constipation.

[Madlegs1]

Unfortunately paracetamol will do nothing for your

RLS.Taking 2 or 300mg of magnesium citrate in the afternoon should help with the constipation. You can adjust this to suit. Maybe start with 100mg and see how it runs. ( Sorry-- goes)😝

As others have said no worries about the codeine, unless you start wanting it more and more. Just be aware of its potential to be addictive if you are an addictive personality.

[Bganim1947]

You could try 100 mgs of Tramadol 3x a day with your Pregabalin. That’s what I take and it works well unless I have been overworking my knees and ankles with gardening, etc. I take (2) 50 mgs of Tramadol and (1) 100 mgs of Pregabalin at 8 AM, 3 PM and 10 PM. It works beautifully and has for 5 years.

[Hoochybaby in reply to Bganim1947]

Hi is tramadol available in the uk with a prescription from gp ?Is it similar to codeine or any better

Codeine causes constipation and insomnia making my life miserable?