Tramadol

[jenlafille]

Any advice, is it addictive? dangerous? counterproductive with effexor? please.

[pandora78]

Hi,

Tramadol is addictive. It is an opiate pain-killer used to treat moderate to severe pain. It is very strong.
I had back surgery in September and I was prescribed this to manage my pain. It clearly states on the package of its potential to be addictive and abused.
I found, unlike other opiate pain-killers, that it did not make me "high". I was glad for that, actually. I enjoy opiates and was worried that I would enjoy this and want to try taking more than the prescribed dosage. What I did find is that it made me sleepy and any "high" associated with it came in the half dreams I would experience as I nodded in and out.
It works very well to reduce pain.
I do not know the effects it would have taken with Effexor, though.

[MaisieC]

It is indeed addictive. Some doctors don't know that yet, and prescribe it to patients telling them otherwise. It has been marketed as non-addictive, but in actual practice addiction is a big problem.

I like opiates too, and unfortunately tramadol did make me high. I also experienced those half-dreams that Pandora described. It actually messed me up worse than any of the other opiates I used. It's very hard to come off of.

I would be very cautious using tramadol with Effexor. Tramadol works as an opioid, but it also has SSRI and SNRI properties (no wonder you feel so good on it!). Some patients who have used tramadol together with SSRIs have experienced "serotonin syndrome," which is basically a very unpleasant and potentially very dangerous OD on serotonin.

What doses are you prescribed of each drug?

Take care,
Maisie

[dougy]

Hi,

Tramadol is addictive. It is an opiate pain-killer used to treat moderate to severe pain. It is very strong.
I had back surgery in September and I was prescribed this to manage my pain. It clearly states on the package of its potential to be addictive and abused.
I found, unlike other opiate pain-killers, that it did not make me "high". I was glad for that, actually. I enjoy opiates and was worried that I would enjoy this and want to try taking more than the prescribed dosage. What I did find is that it made me sleepy and any "high" associated with it came in the half dreams I would experience as I nodded in and out.
It works very well to reduce pain.
I do not know the effects it would have taken with Effexor, though.

Well I think Tramadol is not a true opiate, I was on it for about 3 or 4 months about a year and half ago. My doctor told me it was safe to take non addictive and would not show up on urine test.
It's a opiate like Med, but not a true opiate.
And it is very addictive I was told to stop taking by another Dr. He said it had a lot of intreactions with other drugs.
I felt terrible when I stopped taking it to, It is very addictive. So be very careful when using this drug. There are some very foolish Doctors out there

[Cats Meow]

It's a opiate like Med, but not a true opiate

FYI, that term is called opioid, the only opiates are codeine, morphine, heroin, and opium of course.
Whoever said "it's very strong" must be joking, its analgesia is comparable to codeine which is weak compared to hydrocodone.

[daddyslipdisk]

I have a herniated degenerative disk in my lower back and have for most of my life. I've tried many drugs to deal with the pain from Percoset, Lortab, etc and they were all very potent drugs. They dealt with the pain, but gave me massive, massive migraines where I would be literally writhing in excruciating pain. Plus I was very loopy and spaced. Then along came Ultram (the generic version of Tramadol) and it literally saved everything for me. For my back pain, I had done everything from disk decompression, epidural steroid injections, chiropractic, and nothing worked.

My only option was to either live off of pills or go under the knife which would take me out of commission for 3 months and wasn't even guaranteed and also possibly very dangerous. So I chose Ultram. It deals with the pain and it doesn't really make me loopy. Now I'm not saying that I don't "feel it" because I do, but it's very manageable and I take a very low 100mg dosage (2 - 50mg pills, 3 times daily).

The side effects are there though. It definitely affects your mood and takes that edge off for sure. But to start, my love life struggles. I find it very difficult to get in the mood. No problem performing, but getting to that point can be a chore. I do not have any problem falling asleep at all. In actuality it knocks me out at night. I can normally fall asleep within 10 minutes. HOWEVER, if I don't take it at night, there are withdrawal symptoms. Do NOT let your doctor tell you that there isn't any addictive qualities to this drug. It's not true. I don't get restless leg syndrome like others have stated, but it's a full blown withdrawal on bad nights. That strange light tightening of muscles in your arms, back of your neck, the teeth clenching, where you feel like you can't stretch it out or shake it off. I think because of the amount I take and how long I've been taking it, I get it worse than most people. I don't have sweats or want to claw my eyes out or anything, but it won't let you sleep and that's a fact.

So my only suggestion is that you keep the dosage as low as you can and ween off of the medication towards the evenings. I desperately want to get off of it because I've been on it for years and I don't like the dependency. My best bet is losing weight to take that extra stress off of my back with my beer gut and slowly start taking less and less until I'm off.

I have weened off of it before by giving into the withdrawals. I know this totally goes against what everyone else says, but it's also how I quit smoking. If my body is withdrawing for it and I was on the edge of not being able to stay in control, I would just take a half a Tramadol smashed up with a half glass of water. That way I'm taking the bare minimum and it gets to work fast so I can sleep. After about 2-3 days of this, my withdrawals were gone. Not a theory that would work with something like heroine, but for something lightweight like Tramadol (the low dose version), it can be done and has been done. That worked for a year before I gained weight and I was back on it again.

As with anything, you should always have an exit strategy. If you're scared or concerned, then don't do it. Some people find that they can handle pain with even something like Tylenol or Advil and that drugs like Tramadol, Lortab, etc are just overkill and simply a result of a doctor quick to prescribe them. If you can avoid taking ANY prescribed drugs for pain, do it, no matter what. It's never good to be dependent on any drugs, legal or not.

[Dormarie]

I feel the docs get a bad rap on so called addictive drugs. I feel it is totally up to us if we want to take advantage of the prescriptions they give us. Doesn't take a genius to figure it out. I am so glad I was given this med which helps with pain, cloudy thinking and depression. Good luck to you. Have a nice day.

[stardaughter]

I was addicted to percocet 15-20 pills/day for about a year in my 20's, and I quit c/t with terrible withdrawals!

However, last summer after 3 years of really severe physical pain that did not respond to acu-puncture, weaker pain medication, or other forms of therapy, I started to take percocet and a little later also tramadol. I did read up about Tramadol, and at first I declined it when the doctors suggested it. Finally I gave in and started taking it, concerned I might get addicted staying on the percocet. It was not as effective against the pain as percocet, however, it did help just enough to take the edge of it so I was able to live "normally" (lack of desire or drive was a side effect I found it to have, also effected sex drive). I was on a fairly low dose: 100mg/twice a day. Only a couple of times did I take more, and never did I go over the recommended 800mg/day.

I got some healing herbal medication from my nmd, and after a few months it had helped enough that my pain was a lot less frequent. I decided to quit both the percocet and the tramadol. I had no problems with the percocet this time.

Tramadol however gave me horrible, horrible withdrawals! Far worse than what I experienced when going c/t 7 years ago from percocets. I was experiencing the same wd symptoms as from percocet, just add brain zaps and severe anxiety to the mix!

I would recommend anyone to really, really read up on others experienced with Tramadol. I myself read about the drug itself, but had I read about what other experienced with it, I would have stayed away from it to begin with. Now I hope i can help by telling others of my experience from having to go through the same thing! The seizure risk is also not something to toy around with.

Tramadol is NOT a light drug, not a sugar-pill, and I would not be surprised if there will be a class action law suit coming up for misrepresenting the drug. Big pharma does not see human beings, only $$.

Please be careful, both with your own decisions, and with the advice you give others. We are all different, with different chemical make-up, and for some, this drug might work. But my own personal experience, and after having read and connected with others that had the same or far worse experiences than me, I can state without a shadow of doubt that this drug is def. a potential death trap.

Love to everyone!