Posted by androog on January 22, 2003, at 13:37:17
In reply to Re: opiates and major depression , posted by juanantoniod on January 22, 2003, at 1:27:44
Hi Everyone,
I need to correct a statement I made on my last post. In that post I said that I didn't develop a tolerance to tramadol. My wife reminded me that when I first started taking tramadol for my depression about 2 years ago I only needed 150 mg. I DID develop a tolerance to normal doasages of the tramadol. I kept taking more to get the desired effect. When I got up to 800 mg I hit a plateau. That was back in late 2001, and I still respond to that amount. I realize that that is twice the recommended daily dose, but that's what it takes to get me out of my pit, and the pit is somewhere I'm not going to again, if I can help it.
I take an initial dose of 600 mg and then spread the other 200 mg out over the rest of the day.
About 50 minutes after I take the initial dose I start to feel the depression lift.
About 1 hour after I take my first dose, I get a brief feeling of euphoria or something close to it. This lasts perhaps 5-10 minutes, after that I just feel ok -- no euphoria, no depression. I have to wonder if the euphoria part is really just a feeling of normalcy that seems exaggerated because it eradicates the hell of depression so quickly. Or maybe it's the weak opioid mechanism at work. Could be that's why it takes so much to get me there. But that doesn't explain why the same dose every day has the same effect it did over a year-and-a-half ago.
It's certainly possible that a pure opiod would stop my depression with a smaller dose, but the very word "opioid" elicits a knee-jerk response from the docs I mention it to. I'd like to give opioids a go, but I can't find a doc that'll go that route.
One more thing I neglected to mention is that I also take 200 mg of the tricyclic doxepin a day. This alone doesn't do anything, but it probably enhances the effect of the tramadol. I've read that tramadol can increase the serotonin-raising effects of antidepressants.
I think that's it for now.
Take care, and don't give up the ship.
androog
poster:androog
thread:81414
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030119/msgs/137055.html