codeine withdrawel substitute

Question

I have a relative who is addicted to Tylenol 1's . We have been working, without success, to wean him off the drug. His habit was around 30-35 tabs a day. He says he is down to 15 a day. He was prescribed pain medication for a back ailment which has been successfully treated over the last year and a half...for the most part. He has a great pain doctor who has been treating him with pain blocking injections and supplements him with the pain pills in between. The doctor is aware of the addiction and has carefully prescribed meds over the last few months in an attempt to wean him. The last time we went, he gave him a script for straight codeine 30 mg and the idea was to gardually reduce them over three weeks. It didn't work and he used T-1's all along. He now says he wants to go back to percocet telling me he has a better time coming off them than T-1's. I am really scepticle. Has anyone heard or had a similar experience? Should I believe him? The doctor is very willing to help so he may oblige him. My feeling is if he has already recuced his habit down to 15 tabs, why not continue along this course? His feeling is because has been on them for years, and he already has bad kidneys, (polycystic kidneys) and they are functioning only at 75% , he wants to get off the T-1's asap. Should I trust what he is saying or is there a stronger addiction to percs?

Undonn · Answer

All
We are so close. We are down to 2 percs a day, just can't seem to get past it. Legs ache like crazy. If we go c/t, how long before the pain goes away. Trying baths and Ibuprofen. Running out of meds, do we continue to taper? 2----11/2-----1------? How close are we? Should the symptoms be less now that we are down this low?

jeffclowns · Answer

yeah i defiantly agree he doesn't need to go back to the percs at all ,he really sounds like he needs help and with his kidneys already not fully working at 100% i wonder how his liver his handling all of this ..???...yeah you should try to talk him into something else if you can ,see the thing with pill heads and i know cause i was one 25 days ago if they don't want to quit ain't nothing going to happen so someone needs to talk and maybe convince him into taking a look at himself ,my family an older cousin actually went to my mother and told her you know your son is abusing vicodin like it's going out of style. then i would lie and after a couple weeks i started to look at myself and was like dang i DO HAVE A PROBLEM so by any means necessary even if your got to pi ss him off ,in the long run he will thank you so i wish you the best..God bless..Jeff...

Jaybay · Answer

The percs are WAY stronger and you are right to be skepitcal.  He's working the doctor and he's working you and doing nothing about his addiction.  He's going to need some kind of psychotherapy to get past his urge to reach for a pill bottle.  A pain psychologist who also deals with addiction issues would be a good place to start.  His pain doctor should be able to recommend someone, but actually getting your relative to go may be a difficult proposition.

shahalli · Answer

Ask your doc about suboxene, it is a med that helps opaite addicts with withdrawl and it is better then methadone. There are programs that will pay for the medication if ins will not cover it.