Low Dose Naltrexone - Journal Article

[nyt]

I started on low dose naltrexone (LDN), 4.5 mg at night, in July 2012. It has not been a miracle cure but I would say that my flares are not as bad and don't last as long. I almost stopped taking it because it made me worse for the first month with muscle spasms and insomnia but after that those symptoms went away and then by 3 months I started to notice a subtle difference in my pain flares. The improvement is more noticeable now. One caveat of being on LDN you can not take narcotics. Some dr.'s will occasionally let you take a small dose if you have had a really bad flare but otherwise no narcotics. I never took large doses of narcotics but even stopping just my small dose really bothered my legs. There are very few published articles on the use of LDN for pain. More research has been done on the benefit for patients with Crohn's disease. If anyone is looking for some other medications to try that want to get off of narcotics or who are not taking narcotics know might find this drug of interest to try.

Because this is such a small dose compared to the normal dose given it has to be made by a compounding pharmacy. It is not all that expensive.

[calluna]

Glad to hear that you are persevering with this, nyt, and even more glad to hear that you are getting some positive effects - finally!

Did you consider reducing the dose to 3mg to see if this was easier for you, specifically re the muscle spasms and insomnia? - I've heard this is the usual thing to do, with these symptoms?

This paper is very interesting.

Re narcotics and naltrexone, I was at one point considering the ultra-low dose route myself. So, looking at rather a different mediation.

But if I do ever have to come off pregabalin and topiramate (don't want to think about that right now!) that would be a route I would want to try. Before I knew about this current med combination, I had been researching ULDN and found that there is a pharmacy in the UK which compounds LDN, I was going to ask them if they would compound the ultra-low dose stuff, otherwise I was quite happy to mix it up myself and had found out how to do it.

Or if Oxytrex ever comes to the market, then that would all be sorted anyway, and nobody would have to worry about opiate withdrawal problems ever again, or opiate-induced constipation, either .... this from 2005 - and this from 2007 - no big profits to be made, I'd guess that's the problem - sigh...

[nyt]

The insomnia and muscle spasms only lasted about one month.

I am familiar with Oxytrex. It is in the process of clinical trials in the states. I am sure it will be a while before being on the market as the drug companies that deal with any type of narcotics have to present how they are going to deal with abuse.

[calluna]

Ah, that's good to hear, only a month. Quite long enough, though! I do hope that things continue to improve for you now.

As it is just about impossible to get addicted to Oxytrex, I don't know how they would cope abuse. That had not occurred to me at all. But I'm sure you're right.

(Edited for spelling, sorry, have just taken pregabalin dose up this morning and am stupid)