Tramadol SR vs "regular" Tramadol?

[Batgirl]

Batgirl and ladybugsrcool: I'm glad I could shed some more information about this drug.  And you're right, serotonin-syndrome is NOT to be taken lightly.  Even with myself not being prone to seizures, the withdrawals from a serotonin-releasing compound was an animal I had never met before until I started coming off of tramadol.  I immediately switched to hydrocodone so there weren't any 'opiate withdrawals' but the depression from being depleted from serotonin lasted for about 1.5 months!  

When I was in pain management, I kept a journal everyday of when  I would take, how much, and even the effects of certain medicines "potentiating" the parent drug like antacids that occupy and basically prolong the lifetime of the drug in your system to extend its half-life so the dosing wouldn't need to be as high and so-on.  But since conversion of tramadol to the more potent demethylated tramadol is important, you actually want your liver to do its job of metabolizing it properly.  

Interestingly, like with other opioids, some people are very poor metabolizers of tramadol and thus, don't get much mileage out of it.  I don't want to sound preachy, but be careful with this one.  Like I mentioned, the withdrawals from depleted serotonin are much more difficult to cope with than depleted dopamine.  Make sure you don't take too much and my suggestion is to "cycle" this one with other opioids so you don't take it for more than a month at a time if you have chronic pain.

Take care!

Thanks for the advice!