AboutDr. Ravindra Bhaskar Ghooi Expertise I can provide information on drugs and medicines, their actions, uses, interactions and adverse effects. To avoid confusion, generic names of
medicines may please be provided. I am a pharmacologist, having worked
on animal and human pharmacology, and presently I am the Dean of Bilcare Research Academy, where we teach courses on clinical research. We dont work on saturdays and sundays, hence questions reachng me on these days will be replied on Monday, please bear with me.
drk wrote at 2007-09-06 03:27:39
I disagree about the 5 days. The unofficial literature is full of prolonged - weeks long episodes of withdrawal symptoms from tramadol. For some people, tramadol withdrawal seems worse than that seen with standard narcotics. I imagine that this has something to do with an individual's response to narcotics in general. For example, there is a well documented dramatic variation in response to codeine.
I am a physician and had a similar experience with taking a low dose of tramadol for a short period of time following a knee injury. After two weeks, I was shocked that I suffered restless legs, muscle aches, chills, sleeplessness and mood swings. I didn’t feel ‘back to normal’ for several weeks.
I do not trust our drug evaluation system when I continue to read that there are only sporadic reports of withdrawal symptoms associated with tramadol - It is still marketed as a non-narcotic pain reliever. Sometimes Googling a drug gives better information than the FDA.
SooooSleepy wrote at 2008-01-07 06:25:17
I completely agree with you, drk. It is now 1:00 a.m., and should be in bed by now. However, my ortho doc told me that he will not refill my Tramadol until I come in to see him for a follow-up visit (even though I've been taking Tramadol with no problems for about 4 years now.) So now I am sitting at my computer because laying in bed is beyond frustrating and uncomfortable. I am having serious bouts of RLS (Restless Leg Syndrome) and I just feel like I'm falling apart.
I can't afford to go in to see my doctor since I am currently unemployed, so I had no choice but to cut out the Tramadol entirely. I tried tapering down, but I only had about 6 pills to do that with. So I tried my hardest to go down to 1 a day for 5 days. It has been the craziest ride I've ever been on. I've never used street drugs, and I only drink alcohol sparingly (3-4 times a year)...I have always sworn to people that I would be the LAST to be an addict. Well...I was wrong. I now see that I have been addicted to Ultram for a long time now. Now that I'm no longer able to take it, my body just feels like it's...well, MAD at me.
So tonight, as I mentioned earlier, I am sitting here at my computer rather than sleeping as I should be. Even though I'm as tired as I could be, I just can't sleep. My legs just feel like they have a life of their own. I just want to beat on them to get all of the "jitterbugs" out of them so they'll quit twitching. I know this sounds stupid, but it seems as if my legs keep "yawning." You know..that feeling you get right before you yawn, and right in the middle...where your whole body just shudders, and you're waiting for the release at the end when you can be done. That's what my legs feel like. I know...weird description. It's going on the second week of this now, though (Well beyond the 5 days the other doctor was speaking of!) and I'm sick and tired of it. I'm grouchy all the time at my 10-year-old daughter, and she doesn't deserve that. The thing that bothers me the most is that I just feel completely "deflated." I have no energy whatsoever. I have no clue what to do other than just ride this out. I'm certainly going to call my family doc in the morning and see if there are any ways around the RLS symptoms, since I've read tonight that it can be alleviated somewhat by...what else...other meds. But if they can get me through this withdrawal symptom time, I'm all for it! I just wanted to add my two cents worth, in case anyone else stumbles across this early in the morning with nowhere else to turn...You're not the only one. Tramadol is very much a habit-forming drug. I disagree with several people I have talked with about the drug. I've asked three pharmacists about it, and told them about my symptoms, and all of them said that there was no way that I would be feeling the things I am describing as "withdrawal" symptoms. Each of them said I probably have the flu. There have been three other times in the past 5 years that I have had to skip a couple days here and there, and I have had the exact same symptoms, (just not quite as severe) so I know they are incorrect. They go and look in their books they have on the shelf and see that it's a "non-narcotic" and come back to me and tell me that it shouldn't produce any withdrawal symptoms, but in the time that they went to the shelf and came back, I had to sit down in the waiting chair because I was sweating and dizzy and had to sit down because I was so tired...somehow things are not making it to their medical reference tools. I know there are other people out there like me who are living proof that it *is* a habit-forming drug. Anyway, I already said that I'd added my two cents. I guess I need to raise that to *three* cents now ;) Goodnight everyone! Hopefully this Tylenol PM will help me sleep.
