Ultram versus Vicodin

[William]

Has anyone had any experience with Ultram for lower back pain?
I've been trying to find information on Ultram.  
Does anyone know anything about the drup Ultram?
I am suffering from servere lower back pain caused by multiple colasped and bulging disks.
I have had four epedural injections in the past year still without relief.
I've been taking 30 Vicodin HPs a week for a year now, but I am still suffering and I am finding it difficult to concentrate after taking Vicodin. I want to stop taking Vicodin before I become more dependant on it than I already am.
My Dr. has suggested switching to Ultram in the past.
Some pharmacist say that Ultram is addictive while others say it is not.
Before I switch to another medication I would like to know what I am getting myself into.

Any information would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
William

[ButcherWing]

From everything i've read all over the net and fromy my own experience , everyone has different experiences with prescription drugs and so there is no point in asking for advice from another person because you could get all these effects or none of them. It depends on your body make up IMO.  For example - Valium does nothing for me, no matter how many i take (disapointing), at one point i took 10 at once because i was not getting any effects from lower doses but then all i got was anxiety and a headache. it doesn't make me relaxed or sleeppy atall. So thats me.  And Ultram/Tramadol, i was taking 100mg generic capsules , about 4 or 5 a day because they made me feel confident and a slight buzz, and antidepressed. (better than my actual prescribed antidepressants were doing). But when i ran out of the Ultram capsules each time, man did i have the worst withdrawel! I went through 8 days of hell. Like the worst flu effects ever. Bed ridden, dizzy head, aches and pains, my stomache swelled up, my intenstine was enflamed and throbing and felt like it was being pinched all over it. Basically major IBS for a week causing so much pain that i couldn t sleep for 5 days  in a row and ended up with horrible sleep deprevation and depression. I wondered if it was ever going to go away. I couldn't even get to the doctor because i was too bad to get out of bed.  I got this same 7 day withdrawel/illness 3 months in a row. I finally worked out that it was Ultram doing this to me , because when i stopped taking it, i didn't get the illness back.  It ***** because i liked Ultram but im scared to ever go through that withdrawel week of hell again.  I couldn't eat or anything.  ......So basically im saying , everyone reacts different., So there is no point in asking "Will i be ok? Or "Is so and so better than taking so and so?"  You just need to try it and see how you react.  End of.
P.S- I still don't know if i got this major withdrawel pain because my Ultram was generic from India. But i have no way of getting official brand name Ultram to compare.
I would love to try Vicodin but thats impossible in the UK (i think). My prescribed pain killer is 30mg tabs of Dihycrocodiene. If you take 4 of those at once you are chilled out but you get constipation and physical dependancy because waking in the morning hurts untill you take more Dihydrocodine.
If anyone wants to trade some offical Vicodin for some official Dihydrocodine, let me know.

[kydiver]

As for the withdraws, I did stop for a week to test the effect, and got restless legs a bit at night, but nothing at all like OXY  OMG if I was not a god fearing man, cold turkey off of 120MG a day of oxy, (high amount after surgery) I might have not been able to handle it.  The thing is if your taking this med for a real problem, have a doc that trust you, you will not have a problem, and he will help you with other stuff, IE Ambien, Valium, enough to get you through (not high)  If it works for you, never be scared of a med, this is what a doctor is for.

[kydiver]

I had neck fusion two years ago, along with chron's  was really taking allot of Oxy just to get through the day, when I finally ran out of pain meds and ended up in hospital thinking I had some type of infection (Withdraws) I never wanted to go through that again, after a bit the pain returned and the desire to live a normal day started to change my mind, I spoke with my doctor about the fear of Opiod withdraws and he putt me on Ultram ER 300MG.  It cost allot around 250.00 a month but works for me as good as 2 20MG oxycontin did.  You must be detoxed before starting or you will wish you did, will cause bad withdraws if not, not all the way, just enough to stop binding, after that they will help with withdraws.  I hope that helped

[desperate1111]

Hey Ken, start a new post. You have some valuable information that could help others. This orginal post is from 1999. I didn't want you to get over looked.
Good luck coming off tramadol. Its one evil drug!!!! I've been off trams for 120 days.

[chessgames5656]

Hi all, day 3 of withdrawing from Tramadol. Slept a little better last night, and feel great this morning. Seems to be all downhill from here. Plan on getting some st John's wart today. Some time back I remember it having a relaxing effect. No more Ultram for me! If you'd like to email me:

***@****

Best Wishes,

       Ken

[chessgames5656]

A detox approach for Tramadol (Ultram and Ultracet). Ok, so you've discovered that tramadol is HIGHLY addictive (at least for you, personally). I am recently coming cold turkey off a 150-200 mg per day habit, and have made some interesting discoveries that I hope will also help others. Combined with research concerning the psycho-pharmacology, they make sense.

Things to do:

1) Don't panic and/or beat yourself up.

2) Make a DETERMINED EFFORT to break your addiction.

3) If you are taking more than 50 mg (1 tab for me) begin to taper off. For that, find your comfort level. Be persistent here because, as for myself, I missed the feeling of well-being that I got with a higher dose as I began to taper off. This is where you must let your determination kick in. A 50 mg per week reduction seems reasonable. Push the envelope here if you can tolerate a bit more discomfort.

3) If you are physically able, exercise, exercise, exercise!! This will help boost your mood and help counter the opiate effect of the meds. Sexual activity in the evening was helpful for me as well. At night take some Tylenol or ibuprofen to help you sleep. Expect your sleep to be disrupted for a little while. I accidentally found that Robitussin (dextromethorphan) helped me sleep during the most difficult period, since I happened to have a cold while I was trying to quit. Careful here, though, start out taking half the recommended dose and see how it affects you. The clinical reason is that dextromethorphan will help moderate your serotonin levels, which Tramadol increases.

Warning: if you are taking MAO inhibitors DO NOT take dextromethorphan, as this can be very dangerous.

4) Drink a strong caffinated drink during the day, preferably early in the morning. Why? Tramadol acts to prevent norepinephrine reuptake, and as you taper off, caffeine will help counteract the effects of the reduction of the norepinephrine.

5) Along with your exercise, take care to maintain a good diet to help fortify yourself against reduced or poor sleep.

6) While I did not try it myself, one would expect St John's Wart to offer some relief because of the SSUI effects of Tramadol.

I had to detox because I was running out of pills. The reason Tramadol is so addictive for some is probably due to the fact that you are dealing with 3 separate addictions: opiate, norepinephrine, and serotonin. Another thing: it's probably not a good idea to substitute another addictive drug (though arguably caffeine is) for Tramadol.

If you try this 'method' please give me some feedback about how it works for you. Good luck to all!