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methadone withdrawal and seizures. my story 120mgs CT
I received a lot of questions regarding seizures during opiate withdrawal, I also endured a lot of criticism about it being true so i figured id post my experience in detail. I figured some might be curious or doubtful and might find insight in my experiences.
Withdrawal Related Seizures. My Experience: First i wanted to point out a few little things. Most seizures related to opiate withdrawal have other factors in play like other drugs/alcohol or illness/disease. 85% are caused by simultaneous withdrawal from alcohol or benzodiazapine, 11% by pre-existing conditions such as epilepsy...ect, the remaining 4% are undetermined but there is a consensus throughout the medical field that opiate withdrawal alone can cause seizures in rare cases. Especially going cold turkey off a high dose of choice opiate. from what I've researched, heroine, is the leading opiate that can cause seizure because of the chemicals that can be used to cut it and because of the potency and volume of product in some areas. Methadone was number 2 on their list, causing a little less then half the amount of seizure occurrences during withdrawal as heroine. I cant find any bold medically proven numbers but almost every article or case file i read the doctors were very sure of themselves that seizures can be caused by opiate withdrawal and/or its toll on the body during the withdrawal process.
Like i said briefly before, I have a history of seizures during the severe parts of acute withdrawal. The first time it happened was uneventful. It felt more like a black out or lapse in time without the major signature symptoms of a seizure and the doctors weren't sure what to make of it because of the rarity of having seizures caused by withdrawal but since my tox screen was negative for everything except my adderall (amphetamine) and trace amounts of opiates their diagnosis was a withdrawal related seizure. The second time this happened i was already on methadone for a little over a year and had an emergency that required me to fly out of state. No chance for special take homes and no chance at getting paperwork through for guest dosing in time. Plus where i was headed was pretty remote so i wasn't even sure if they had a clinic within a reasonable distance. I dosed the morning of my flight, at that time my dose was 160mgs, and i headed to the airport on my way to Hugo, OK. The first and even second day were pretty much uneventful, withdrawal started on day three and i was in agony on day 4. I called my clinic doctor in MD and he said that there was nothing they could do so i asked him to transfer me to my addiction counselor and asked him to fax me discharge papers ASAP so i could find a clinic in OK. the doctor took 4 more days to sing my discharge papers. The 8th day i was in hell. I was in the middle of nowhere and i only knew 1 person there so when she couldn't be by my side, i was alone... really alone and that made things exponentially worse. Well that night, when she came to the hotel because i wasn't answering the phone, she found me unconscious on the floor in my briefs. I remember vaguely her trying to get me up but I didn't have the strength to stand. she told me that she was taking me to the hospital whether i liked it or not so I crawled to her car, hands and knees, in my underwear. Half way to the hospital, which is in walking distance if your in decent shape (2 miles), i started having a seizure. i have no recollection of anything else until the next day. I was told that the nurses had to pull me from the car and get me on a gurney, quote "while i was flailing like a drowning pigeon", and they stuck me in the leg with 4 mg lorazepam, 5mg valium, and 200mgs of phenobarbitol over the next 20 minutes to get me stable. i woke up the next day cathed, two IVs, and in nothing but the hospital gown the nurses dressed me in. i was also told once they realized what was going on they administered a 4mg per ml solution of meperidine (Demerol) through my IV. They also called my clinic got my discharge papers and arranged transportation and an intake with the closest methadone clinic, 50 miles away in Durant, OK. I stayed one more night in the hospital receiving Demerol through IV overnight and no benzodiazapine or other seizure medication was needed for any kind of seizure the rest of the stay. They did give me a prescription for colonazepam but after i knew i was going to be getting dosed everyday i told them i didn't need it.
If anyone has any questions, i will do my best to answer them promptly, thank you for reading. :)
Withdrawal Related Seizures. My Experience: First i wanted to point out a few little things. Most seizures related to opiate withdrawal have other factors in play like other drugs/alcohol or illness/disease. 85% are caused by simultaneous withdrawal from alcohol or benzodiazapine, 11% by pre-existing conditions such as epilepsy...ect, the remaining 4% are undetermined but there is a consensus throughout the medical field that opiate withdrawal alone can cause seizures in rare cases. Especially going cold turkey off a high dose of choice opiate. from what I've researched, heroine, is the leading opiate that can cause seizure because of the chemicals that can be used to cut it and because of the potency and volume of product in some areas. Methadone was number 2 on their list, causing a little less then half the amount of seizure occurrences during withdrawal as heroine. I cant find any bold medically proven numbers but almost every article or case file i read the doctors were very sure of themselves that seizures can be caused by opiate withdrawal and/or its toll on the body during the withdrawal process.
Like i said briefly before, I have a history of seizures during the severe parts of acute withdrawal. The first time it happened was uneventful. It felt more like a black out or lapse in time without the major signature symptoms of a seizure and the doctors weren't sure what to make of it because of the rarity of having seizures caused by withdrawal but since my tox screen was negative for everything except my adderall (amphetamine) and trace amounts of opiates their diagnosis was a withdrawal related seizure. The second time this happened i was already on methadone for a little over a year and had an emergency that required me to fly out of state. No chance for special take homes and no chance at getting paperwork through for guest dosing in time. Plus where i was headed was pretty remote so i wasn't even sure if they had a clinic within a reasonable distance. I dosed the morning of my flight, at that time my dose was 160mgs, and i headed to the airport on my way to Hugo, OK. The first and even second day were pretty much uneventful, withdrawal started on day three and i was in agony on day 4. I called my clinic doctor in MD and he said that there was nothing they could do so i asked him to transfer me to my addiction counselor and asked him to fax me discharge papers ASAP so i could find a clinic in OK. the doctor took 4 more days to sing my discharge papers. The 8th day i was in hell. I was in the middle of nowhere and i only knew 1 person there so when she couldn't be by my side, i was alone... really alone and that made things exponentially worse. Well that night, when she came to the hotel because i wasn't answering the phone, she found me unconscious on the floor in my briefs. I remember vaguely her trying to get me up but I didn't have the strength to stand. she told me that she was taking me to the hospital whether i liked it or not so I crawled to her car, hands and knees, in my underwear. Half way to the hospital, which is in walking distance if your in decent shape (2 miles), i started having a seizure. i have no recollection of anything else until the next day. I was told that the nurses had to pull me from the car and get me on a gurney, quote "while i was flailing like a drowning pigeon", and they stuck me in the leg with 4 mg lorazepam, 5mg valium, and 200mgs of phenobarbitol over the next 20 minutes to get me stable. i woke up the next day cathed, two IVs, and in nothing but the hospital gown the nurses dressed me in. i was also told once they realized what was going on they administered a 4mg per ml solution of meperidine (Demerol) through my IV. They also called my clinic got my discharge papers and arranged transportation and an intake with the closest methadone clinic, 50 miles away in Durant, OK. I stayed one more night in the hospital receiving Demerol through IV overnight and no benzodiazapine or other seizure medication was needed for any kind of seizure the rest of the stay. They did give me a prescription for colonazepam but after i knew i was going to be getting dosed everyday i told them i didn't need it.
If anyone has any questions, i will do my best to answer them promptly, thank you for reading. :)
nope. I CT detoxed from 120mgs 40 days ago, and i made sure i spent the first 3 days in the ER lol. i was given colonazapam for 7 days afterwards just in case and also given an intramuscular injection of another seizure med for the acute phase of the withdrawal.
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