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MedHelp Member's Question

Oxycontin Withdrawal

by Dennis, Feb 25, 2000 12:00AM
My wife is at the point where she is getting off Oxycontin soon. She is taking 120mg/day to contol her back pain and her back will be repaired shortly.

My question, is it better to reduce the dosage quickly (say over 6 days) and endure the sterss of all the withdrawal symptoms and be back to normal sooner or to do a slow letdown and minimize the withdrawal symptoms? Also any estimates of how long the slow method could take?



Thank you
Member Comments (60)

by Mike, Feb 25, 2000 12:00AM
If she can do it - take as long as you can with diminishing amounts. Getting "back to normal sooner" isn't really a reality with opiates. If you come off quick, the withdrawal symptoms go away after a few days, but there's a mental void. If you go off slowly, it's so gradual that your body won't be in any type of noticible shock/change. If she isn't "addicted" she should be able to taper well. But, if someones addicted, someone else needs to hold the reigns of the drug. They'll take enough to feel good and disregard being out of medication the next day. It sounds like she is only on the Oxycontin short-term, so she should do fine. The taper rate should be shorter than if she had been taking it for a year or so...But I guarantee that if you go off too soon, your wife will "miss" the medication. And if she doesn't think she "needs" it now, she will then. I hope this makes sense.

by Dennis, Feb 25, 2000 12:00AM
Thanks for your response Mike. However she has been on it for a year. Any input as to the taper rate? The Oxycontin web page shows 50% less to start for 2 days and 25% less for 2 days until below 10-20mg/day.



Thanks again

by evan, Feb 25, 2000 12:00AM
withdrawal from oxyconyin depends on a fw things.such as how many she was taking and for how long. its been my experience that it takes 5 to 7 days to detox. but the cravings are strong and it is difficult to function completely normal at this time. then there is another problem,diahrea. it can be quite difficult to control that, so be close to a bathroom.you do have soom pleasant moments sometimes,after all you are trying to stay clean[HOORAY]from ther as long as you stay clean every day gets better                  good luck EVAN

by zelda, Feb 27, 2000 12:00AM
Hi Denis,  I think you may be underestimating what you wife will be going through.  It is not as matter of fact as all that.  I was on vicodin es for about a year and quitting is hell.  I am on a taper program.  They taper me 10% a week and even that is hard.  Try to understand it is the mental part that is that is the most difficult.  If you have never been addicted to a narcotic it is very hard to understand.  It sounds like you are trying to prepare early that is good, just understand it will be hard for her.  And she will probably be very irritable at best.

by Sandi, Feb 29, 2000 12:00AM
My Mom was on oyxcontin, she was on a very high dosage for quite a while....until she overdosed, then she flipped out...they put her on methodone to detox her, but she still had seizures...it was horrible. It has been over a month now & she is just now getting back to an even keel. This stuff scares the **** out of me.

by brian, Mar 04, 2000 12:00AM
Go slower, do not reduce by more than 10% per day.  At end of detox, see if you can get dr. to prescribe clonidine (a blood pressure med. that helps with the minor withdrawal symptoms) and trazodone (an anti-depressant that is great for sleep).  Oxy is hard to detox from (I've been there).  Any more questions, just ask.  GOOD LUCK!!!

by kelly, Mar 04, 2000 12:00AM
I smoke every day and have since high school. tried to quit a handful of times but the buzz has always been irrestiable. I'm sort of accident prone and have hurt myself several times and caught my self on fire once. Got demerol most of the time and enjoyed it. sometimes even went back with phantom pain to get more. never got hooked and always went back to my normal rutine, no pun intended. I blew out my knee and got vicodine, then ES, finally oxycontin (20's). The knee got scoped and healed, took about six months. Went to quit the meds and quikly realized tapering was the way to go. Got some valium for the jones and used vicodin ES and a pill cutter to wean. told everone I had the flu and spent a week in bed with more sympoms than space here to describe. a year later I ruptured a disk, cautously went back on the same two meds, leaving the meds at the pharmicy and picking up a few days worth at a time twice a week. pain got worse, meds went as high as 240mgs oxycontin per day (3-40's am & 3-40's PM).when I tried to go to 2-80's every 12 hrs the parmicy wouldn't go along. I stayed at 3-40s twice a day but really started to worry about what the pamicist said about the oxy. Began to taper as to not wind up killing myself with these things. went to 2-40's twice a day. caught my thumb nail in the clamping device at work and ripped my thumb nail out whole. it was excrutiating, but i stayed on track and am currently stepping down from 1-10 and 1-20 twice a day to 1-20 am 1-20 pm. the plan is to step down to 10's in five days. I hope to first eliminate the am 10mg, then the pm 10mg after a few days. I hope the withdraw from that level will be tolerable. I can't wait to feel normal once again. A detox worker told me about Naltrexone to fight the craveings after the detox. has anyone ever tried this and is it worse that the desease? I can't tell you all how much strength I've gained from reading each one of your stories. Good luck to us all.

by brian, Mar 06, 2000 12:00AM
Good luck to you on your tapering.  As to the Nal, I have not found it to help cravings at all.  What it really does is simply block the effects of the opiates for a long enough period of time for you not to act instantly on a craving and relapse.  My experience with it is that if you want to use it, the best way is to wait until about 2 weeks after your last opiates (to make sure they are totally out of your system, otherwise it will precipitate withdrawal), then, if you can, have a Nal pellet implanted.  They do this in about ten minutes, in a doctor's office, local anesthetic and a few stiches.  They put the pellet somewhere like your side or abdominal area.  Then, the pellet releases Nal for about 6-8 weeks.  That way, you HAVE to stay clean.  With the pills, you can stop taking them and use in about 48hrs.  Best of luck!

by Frank, Apr 06, 2000 12:00AM
I hope you're still following these posts.



I've been on oxycontin for a year due to a crushed L4 vertabra (60mg x2/day). Last summer, I decided to get off. At first, I decided to just stop. BIG mistake! Within four hours of missing the last dose, I was in the blackest depression you can possibly imagine - suicidal. The hour that it took for the dose to take effect that I swallowed after the depression started was the longest hour of my life.



Then I decided to just taper off. No pressure from the doctor. No one associated with me was in a hurry of any kind. It took me two and a half months to go from 60 mg twice a day to 20 mg twice a day. No depression. No withdrawal of any kind. However, I was in a whole lot more pain with that crushed L4 than I thought I was. Apparently, that oxycontin is as good as they say it is. I'm back on it now with no problem from my back and I'm told that since surgery is not recommended for me that I will be on it for a long time.



So if there's any advice in this it would be to make sure your wife has all the oxycontin she wants for as long as she wants it. Let her taper off at her own rate; she'll know what it is. She should not have to be on anyone's schedule but her own.



Hope this helps.



Frank

by Phobs, Jun 30, 2000 12:00AM
I have been on Oxycotin for about 7 months.  Prior to that I was taking Loratab for about a year, and prior to that I was taking percocet and vicadine.  All of this was in connection with chronic pain arising from L-5/S-1 spine injury.  Because the lami nectomy two years ago did not work, I underwent fusion this last May and am still in my "post-op" phase of recovery two months later.  I am taking approximately 60-80 mg of Oxycontin per day and my efforts to taper have been difficult.  Apart from the pressure/guilt/anxiety from my surgeon (he personally would never prescribe Oxycontin but was was "forced" to accept that the pain management folks already had me on it) and pharmacist, when I reduce my dosage, I suffer extreme generalized burning pain throughout my body --- its like a bad sunburn on the inside.  I realize now that part of my error was chewing the tablet so that I could manage the break through pain.  Now, having bounced around various message boards on the net, I realize that I have to approach my pain management much differently, but am at a loss for how.  For one thing, I don't know if my pain is because my back has not yet healed or because of trying to reduce the drug dosage.  I also don't know if there is some other way to manage the taper either with other drugs or therapies (e.g. acupuncture).  Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.  I realize my dosages are smaller in both duration and quantity than many of you, but I would like to avoid learning through personal experience the road that many of you have travelled so courageously.  Thank you.

by Brian to Sick and Scared § ALL you guys, Jul 01, 2000 12:00AM
Your body is clearly dependent on the narcotic.  You will experience withdrawal symptoms (which is probably what the burning sensation is) unless you are switched to another drug and then tapered from that.  My advice is to ask your physician to switch you to buprenorphine (injections you can do yourself) and then taper the buprenorphine.  This will limit or eliminate withdrawal.  Only once you are off the narcotics for a bit will you be able to determine your baseline level of pain from your spinal problem.

by Gina, Jul 12, 2000 12:00AM
I have been on demorol for 1 month then they switched me to oxycontin 20 mg first for 2+ months and then after my gall bladder surgery they upped it to 40mg about a week-10 days ago.  I have another doctors appt. soon and decided since the pain had subsided to quit the meds altogether and see what I had left of the pain