Fibromyalgia Support Group

I havent taken neurontin but I have a feeling it and a few others are in my future. I saw a new rhumi today and after the baby is born he wants to see me and start changing my meds. to see if we can get better pain relief.

I have taken tramadol how ever for well over 10 years. I havent noticed that tramadol is responcible for my weight problems. I am heavy set but I am loosing weight (I do that when pregnant go figure)and Im still taking the ultram. I Had a few periods of time where I went off the med to detox and didnt notice a weight change nor did I notice a weight change when I restarted the medication. sO OVER ALL i WOULD SAY THAT ULTRAM has had few weight issues for me. Also I can add that for me ultram has few side affects for me as well. While I had to learn how to take the med to make it most productive for me (yes there is a way to take it that it works well and a way to take it and not notice that you took it) even my uncle has noticed this... any how... If I take it prior to the pain feeling OUT of control it works great. If I take it once I have passed that point of tolerance it doesnt work as well to start with and I have to use the bath, heat therapy and often my vicoden or xanax to calm my muscels down enough to help the med do its job. Also when I am coming off the meds it can be a bit painful. to me it seems like the ultram numbs the nerves (not sure if thats what it really does) and when it wears off its rather sudden and it feels like the nerves are waking up and its kinda painful. ALmost like my foot went to sleep and when it waks up it hurts know what i Mean? not the same pin prick feeling BUT close.

If you can learn how to take it and give it a chance I think it can be a great med. Sadly I am at max dose and the docs frown on that fact. It takes 2 50 mg tabs at a time for me and It can take 3 to 4 doses a day. Max dose from the manufature is 400mg a day which I often hit. So they often make me detox so that I can take 200-300 a day instead of 400... I also end up using the vicoden as well.... so it obviously isnt working for me like it use to... ah well will be intresting to see what they do with me after the baby comes. At least I am going to not have to face the changes for a couple more months.

I took both but not concurrently. Neurontin negatively affected my mood and I kept having to take more and more - each time going through a period of feeling drunk. As far as I could tell, it did nothing for my pain.

Tramadol may have caused my blood pressure to raise and I also started experiencing mild hallucinations and nightmares.

These days, I keep it simple.

I take Boswellia for pain and make sure to get in some yoga practice every day. Some days it's all I can do to belly breathe and other days I can salute the sun.

TramadoI is an SNRI. It was originaIIy deveIoped as an anti-depressant, but it was deveIoped around the same time as Prozac/PaxiI/ZoIoft, so the decision was made to market it as an anaIgesic, because it did have pain-reIieving properties.

Many doctors Iike it because it has a Iower abuse potentiaI than opioids. It is a partiaI agonist, acting on the mu receptor (the same receptor targeted by opioids). Other doctors wiII not use it at aII because of the way it Iowers the seizure threshoId.

I got marginaIIy adequate pain reduction from it. However, I took it concurrenty with Prozac in 2000 and with ZoIoft in 2006. Both times, on the third day of taking it, I had a seizure (I do not have a seizure disorder) and ended up in the ER.

Neurontin did nothing for me. I was on it for a year or more, in two separate triaIs, and got no pain reIief. I didn't have any weight gain, though. I did have nausea, Ioss of appetite, and a "disconnected" feeIing, so I stopped taking it.

The manufacturer was fined over $400M a few years ago for improper marketing of Neurontin, specificaIIy for teIIing doctors it heIped patients with fibromyaIgia. The FDA had not approved it for this use, and there was no evidence that it did heIp.

After Neurontin, I had triaIs of two other anti-convuIsants, Zonegran and GabitriI. Both of these caused rapid weight Ioss, aIong with other side effects, and provided no pain reIief.

PersonaIIy, I've found that opioids are the onIy medications that are reaIIy effective for me, and that do not have intoIerabIe side effects.

don't know about the tramadol....
BUT i've been on gabapentin (neurontin is the other name) for quite a while now and it's changed my life.
i don't know if it causes weight gain or not cuz i've been thru so many meds in and out that my weight has yoyo-ed, so who knows which one did what as far as weight wise.

ANYWAYS, i take 1,800 mg a day of gabapentin (600mg 3x/day) and i can wear my clothing with out it hurting me or burning me. i used to have massive areas of my body with skin pain (like sunburn and road rash) where every freakin thing hurt. but now it's toned down enough to where i hardly notice it anymore. i mean it's there but not to the degree i feel like screaming anymore. i can go on with my day and ignore it.

so i'm very thankful for the gabapentin! so if it helps you more than harms you then go for it or stay on it. but if you try increasing it and you feel worsening side effects then go back down in dosage or get off it. you always have options and room to play. just make sure you talk to your doc about it.

hope you get things figured out! let us know what happens, k?

Reply 3 stated that tramadol was a SNRI, but its not... atleast from what I know about it.
Tramadol is a man-made (synthetic) analgesic (pain reliever). Its exact mechanism of action is unknown but similar morphine. Like morphine, tramadol binds to receptors in the brain (opioid receptors) that are important for transmitting the sensation of pain from throughout the body to.
I used Ultram (tramadol) when the hydrocodone I was taking was causing me to itch. Tramadol is a a narcotic-like pain reliever. here is a like about the med: http://www.drugs.com/tramadol.html

I took it but it did nothing for the pain. So to anserw about your weight gain question... I wasn't on it long enough.
But Its not line Lyrica or Neurontin - their not in the same class at least.
Its more alone the line of narcotic pain relievers, so I would think it would have the type of side effects you would get from that class of drugs. Although I was told it is no addictive, which is why its narcotic-like.
I gained 15 pounds in a month from neurontin, so I know how you feel about not wanting to take something thats going to make you gain weight.
Try it, if it doesn't work in a few days, its not going to.
Good luck!

The part of my repIy about the deveIopment of tramadoI came from a Iecture I attended about 12 years ago, given by a psychiatric nurse from the NationaI Institutes of HeaIth.

As for it being an SNRI (I know it's not marketed this way, but that was done to avoid intense competition with the then-new SSRIs, so it's been marketed as an anaIgesic. These detaiIs reaIIy aren't that important, except to show how we are at the mercy of big pharma as we seek treatment that works), the foIIowing is from Wikipedia:

"Tramadol was developed by the German pharmaceutical company Grünenthal GmbH in the late 1970s.[1][2]

Tramadol possesses agonist actions at the μ [mu]-opioid receptor and affects reuptake at the noradrenergic and serotonergic systems.[3][4][5] Tramadol is a compound with mild and delayed μ-agonist activity.

Tramadol is a synthetic stripped-down piperidine analog of Codeine and, as such, is an opioid. Opioids are chemical compounds which agonise one or more of the human opiate receptors, regardless of the receptor class or sub-type. The opioid agonistic effect of tramadol and its major metabolite(s) almost exclusively effects the μ-opioid receptor. This characteristic is notable, because even morphine is not exclusive to the μ-receptor, although it manifests the preponderance of its opioid agonistic effects here."

I aIso found it interesting in Iooking up these sources tonight that tramadoI IS now Iisted as a "drug of abuse." I've aIso heard that there is a movement to make it a controIIed substance.

some additionaI info from Wikipedia:

"Tramadol is used to treat moderate to moderately severe pain and most types of neuralgia, including trigeminal neuralgia.[6] Tramadol is like levorphanol (albeit with much lower mu-agonism), somewhat, pharmacologically, as both opioids are also NMDA-antagonists which also have SNRI activity. It has been suggested (and proven in many people) that tramadol could be effective for alleviating symptoms of depression, anxiety, and phobias[7] because of its action on the noradrenergic and serotonergic systems.[8] However, health professionals have not endorsed its use for these disorders[9][10]; although may/-can be used at a few scale of its orders and at unique treatment (just-only when other treatments failed-missed), and have to be used under-/with control of a psychiatrist.[11][12]

In May 2009, the United States Food and Drug Administration wrote a warning letter to Johnson & Johnson, warning that a promotional website by the manufacturer had "overstated the efficacy" of the drug, and "minimized the serious risks".[13]"

The Wikipedia articIe says that tramadoI DOES resuIt in physicaI dependency and a "severe" withdrawaI syndrome. I remember when it first became avaiIabIe in the US, one of its seIIing points was that whiIe it "acted Iike" an opioid, it was NOT an opiod, and thus did not carry the risks of dependence and withdrawaI of opioids.

Wow thanks for all your replies. Evidently I was not clear in my post. I have been taking Neurontin for several years and I am at 2400 mgs, there is no way I plan to increase it. The only side effects I have is added memory loss to what Fibro has caused and gaining all this weight. It helps but mostly with the Neuralgia and Sciatica in back, butt, legs and feet. I declined Lyrica as my doc and a specialist tried to talk me into taking it. Most meds add to my already unexplained 9 year long severe nausea spell. Neurontin has not. Before Neurontin I was prescribed Tramadol and took the first dose at night. That night I was full of anxiety, nausea, vomiting and when I could sleep I had bizarre nightmares. NIght from hell, I flushed the whole bottle of them the next day. I do not tolerate too many meds. MSContin caused me horrid headaches all night and headache from hell the next morning, I tried it for a week. I am on a low carb, low fat, low sodium and anti-inflammation diet. Before the increase of Neurontin to 2400 mgs I lost 1 or 2 lbs every month when weighed at my doc's office. I was already overweight but I was pleased with where I was and how I looked. I half starved myself staying on this diet combo of mine at small portions for 3 months and did not lose 1 lb just kept fluctuating up and down 4 lbs. I do not have much of an appetite and sometimes just forget to eat. I also take Percocet 2 1/2 pills a day(5/325) and have only constipation from it, best pain reliever by far with the fewest side effects but my doc will not prescribe more than this. I also take Naproxen which I hate to take because of the scary side effects(long term) so take less than prescribed and I take Flexeril 3 per day. I still hit an 8 or 9 on the pain scale at times with all these meds. I take loads of vitamins and supplements. Hope that makes things clearer. Though I had that one bad experience with Tramadol I was just thinking of trying again if it wasn't one of those that cause a big increase in weight. I am cutting down by 300 mgs tonight with my bedtime meds. I also could not tolerate Baclofen.

Thanks again, I find your replies very helpful. : )

Sherry

sherry, ive used tramadol for at least 2 yrs and no weight gain problems. i use it off label for depression. i dont find its any great pain reliever though, doesnt help the sciatica. but some find it helps them alot that way. just everyone is different. in common with you all to some degree, i do get what used to be called nervous exhaustion, now they lumped that in with chronic fatigue. i tried neurontin at one time for my depression, didnt feel it helped that at all. but i wasnt on tramadol then.

have you ever read anything on transfer factor? its suppose to help boost ones own immune system significantly. i was reading they say its sometimes a help with fibro. i can track down the link if you want to read about it, sherry.

Thanks for your input Todd. I would very much like to read about the transfer factor, whatever that is. Yes, please give me the link.

Sherry