bupe for chronic pain?

[renton]

I see that alot of people here take buprenorphine in one form or another so I was hoping for some info. I have osteoarthritis in my neck from a old car wreck which gives me horrible chronic pain. I've tried all the non narcotics and none of them work that good. I've also tried injections in my neck which helps a little. The thing that helps most though is the potent narcotics, I was on oxy 40mg a day for about 5 months and it works great. Only problem is if I miss i dose I feel horrible and all the doctors I see dont want me on it cause I'm 22 and they figure I might abuse it. So my question is would something like suboxone or subutex be a good alternative to what I've been taking? and would it be less addictive? I live in Canada so I'm not sure if it's even available here or how i would go about getting it so any info would be great.

[Zoop]

Buprenorphine is a good analgesic. I have some upper back/shoulder pain sometimes, if I am doing repetitive work that requires me to be bent over or writing at a desk for an extended period of time, and when I take a dose of bupe (I am on maintenance), the pain totally disappears. The pain relief only lasts for a few hours, though, even though the buprenorphine itself stays in the body for quite a long time (long half-life, that is).

And, it's "less addictive," if there can be such a thing. It's like saying a pregnant woman is "less pregnant" than some other pregnant woman. What I mean is that if you're hooked on it, you're hooked on it. The withdrawal symptoms are supposedly less intense. That is up for debate, though.

maybe you should try bupe for your pain. Only thing is that if you are taking at least a moderate amount of it per day, it TOTALLY BLOCKS other opiates, so if you need to rely on other narcotics, for episodes of more severe pain, you wouldn't be able to. Like if you were going to take oxycodone for breakthrough pain not controlled by the bupe, it wouldn't have any effect, or very little effect at best.

So, maybe it's not the best choice.

[JoyDivision]

I'm 22 turning 23 on the 29th of Jan and I'm on 3 x 20mg OxyContin or 90 per month. Sure I abuse it a little but if abusing it means taking extra because of my pain then is that really abuse? I call it tolerance.
Look, you're going to get a tolerance to pretty much every opiate or any other medications for pain no matter what it is. So, so fucking what! Just prove to them that you won't abuse it. I was on 3 x 10mg OxyContin CR's for about 6 months before I had my dose doubled. I took my pain doctor advice. He said "go slow, go low" and I did. Hopefully I'll be on this dose for another 6 months (hopefully longer) before I go up again.

Anyway. If you've got Osteoarthritis why the hell do you need OxyContin or something similar? Aceteminophen / Paracetamol according to my pain specialist is supposed to be one of the most effective treatments for Osteoarthritis. Have you given it a good go? Like 2 500mg tablets every 4-6 hours 4 times daily with a max of 8 tablets per day. Don't just take them when you're in pain. If you want them to work well then take them like clockwork. The same time everyday.

Otherwise. Why does it have to be OxyContin? Why not Propoxyphene (just don't get Darvon-N with the Napsylate salt, it's useless, the HCl one is fine), Codeine, Tramadol or Hydrocodone? And then take a muscle relaxant alongside it. Such as Diazepam which is an excellent muscle relaxant or if you need a stronger benzo then Clonazepam. Personally I would rather Diazepam as you can take it during the day and not fall asleep. Clonazepam should really be used at night. Then there's Soma (Carisprodol) which I wish we could get here in Australia. Norgesic or Norflex (Orphenadrine Citrate), Cyclobenzaprine, Baclofen <- I'm on this one alongside OxyContin for muscle spasms, relaxant, cramps.

I know Chronic pain can be really bad. But if you're going to have to put up with it for the rest of your life. You don't want to go straight to the big guns first otherwise by the time you're old you'll probably be trying to score H. Start with the milder stuff that works first and take it from there. I have not just really bad neck pain (because I have a straight instead of curved neck) but because I have mild lower back scoliosis (which can cause more pain than some severe scoliosis and no one knows why). I have really bad lower back pain and get bad muscle spasms. I get bad leg cramps at night and sometimes during the day. I get mid back and upper back pain. I also get bad pain in my head. So I get pain all over the place. And I still get bad muscle spasms when I take my full dose of Oxy.

If I were you. I'd take some Hydrocodone and Diazepam (or Soma). And then Codeine, Propoxyphene or Tramadol for breakthrough pain.

Bupe doesn't sound good for Chronic pain at all.

[malefiacrum]

I too would like to know if Bupe is available in Canada...I have looked online a little and can't find anything definitive.

[exitwound]

LMAO, APAP for arthritis?! Are you NUTS?!

Maybe really, really mild arthritis....

But my reactive arthritis, triggered by an acute infection a couple of years ago, can get so severe that I can barely move and I definitely can't walk because all the bones in my hips, legs, knees, ankles and feet are so sore that it's like being put through a meat grinder full of broken glass to even try to get out of bed!

Hell, OC20's wouldn't even be enough in that case! I take about 200mg of morphine per day for that kind of pain and it's often not enough! :o

[renton]

I agree with exitwound. Tylenol doesent do dick except for mild pain plus it's toxic to take it for too long where as stuff like morphine and oxy can be taken for years without problems. My doc finally put me on the fentanyl patch after I pleaded with the dude and it seems to work ok. It sure feels different than oxy, with that stuff I got such a high off it but with this i cant even tell I'm taking it which is good in some ways. As far as taking valium I've just tried that and it seems to be helping. In my experience though benzos are way way more dangerous than narcotics, I hear it takes some people monthes to get off them. Anyways thanks for the advice.

[exitwound]

Bupe could work for low to moderate pain but I would be concerned about serious chronic pain because it's designed to maintain an equilibrium of your opiate receptors....not keep them saturated as one would need to treat serious pain.

Plus, for chronic pain, doses are always going to be increasing over time.....