Not having great success with Suboxone

[GoForward]

I just submitted a reply to a fellow Canadian, YoghurtLover2, regarding Suboxone. Since I am having my own issues, I thought it best to make my own separate submission.

Exactly 3 weeks ago, I took my last Pramipexole. The whole experience has been as difficult as everyone warned but I am very pleased to have gotten this far. I could not have done it without the guidance and support from this forum! Now I need to determine how to find relief from my current symptoms.

So I took my last .125 mg of Pramipexole 3 weeks ago. I am currently taking 1.5mg of Suboxone. I have nausea, constipation (mostly controlled through diet), and numbing depression. I am awakened several times a night with RLS.

As a recap, I first started taking Suboxone mid-January. At that time I was still on .5mg of Pramipexole (down from initial 1.75mg). Over the following weeks of weaning off Prami, I have had to increase the amount of Suboxone (from .25mg to 1.5mg). During this same period of time, I stopped taking the Pregabalin (50mg) as I didn’t feel it was helping at all. Then, 2 weeks before I stopped the Prami completely, I reintroduced the Pregabalin. I stopped after a few days though as I felt it was worsening the Suboxone side effects.

At this juncture, I am taking only the Suboxone (1.5mg) and I am up several times a night with RLS. That said, while I was still taking the Prami, the Suboxone did help my RLS tremendously. Not every night but the outbreaks I did have were few and manageable.

Now, it’s like I am in full blown RLS again, daytime and night. Although, I have to admit that I no longer have upper body spasms after all these years of augmentation.

Do you think I should just continue as is for the next few weeks until more time has passed being off the Prami? If you think gummies would help, can you please direct me as to a specific kind to try? (I have no idea where to start with that.) Should I perhaps ask my gp to switch from a Pregabalin prescription to one for gabapentine and see if introducing that might work better for me after a few weeks? Of course, my gp wants to see me eventually reduce the opioid (if that’s even possible for me).

I will have my iron levels checked again in the coming weeks.

Always grateful!

[Joolsg]

You have only been off Pramipexole for 3 weeks. Withdrawals last weeks- or months.It is VERY early days.

I started Buprenorphine 5 years after my last dopamine agonist

The nausea can be helped with cannabis. I took cannabis oil with 20% THC and it settled the nausea within a week. I stopped cannabis and nausea had gone.

Constipation can be helped by adding a good probiotic (symprove or VSL), chia seeds, and brassica (cauliflower/broccoli) every night.

The depression is common after withdrawal from dopamine agonists. Your brain has had years of 'dopamine' and now it's gone. Your brain needs time to recover and repair and to make its own dopamine.

If it doesn't improve in the next month, see your doctor to discuss trazodone or Bupropion.

I split my Buprenorphine dose to make sure RLS doesn't wake me during the night.

You could try taking 0.5mg at 9 pm and 1mg just before you fall asleep.

Pregabalin or gabapentin can help to counter opioid alerting- but you don't seem to have that. Your RLS is still breaking through. So spilt the dose. If that doesn't help- you might have to increase to 2mg.

[GoForward in reply to Joolsg]

Thanks Jools. I will definitely play with splitting the dosage before considering any increase.

[Sylviet]

Gabapentin and a very small dose of Klonopin has really helped, even though I am on antidepressants. I also really cut back on the caffeine.

[GoForward in reply to Sylviet]

Thank you Sylviet. I did take Pregabalin for a few weeks. It didn’t agree with me. But I may ask my gp to switch me to Gabapentin. I know they are the same family of drug but sometimes people react differently to the other. I hadn’t thought of Klonopin. Thanks for this! It always helps to know what has worked for others.