Study: Tr@madol, not just for pain but for depression.

[Anamcara]

Well now, it's clear to see where my bias is here.   Tr@madol helped me with my back pains and maintained my anxiety & depression, all with a single pill.  Now, after 5 years of successful monitoring of my pain and mental states, it has become impossible for me at this point to get any more of the one thing that has been able to give me peace every day.  Thank you govt for cracking down on doctors, leaving me out to dry and agitate through the healthcare system.

the nerve of the govt to  tell me what should work for me. The reality is that i was perfectly fine. 

Wow, I have rarely seen a post that I agree with absolutely 100%. Your experience is exactly mine as well. Except for me it has been 8 years. Yes, 8 years of responsibly managing my pain, depression and anxiety without dependency, without increasing dosage, and with functioning better than I had in many years. For some of us, it really is a cure-all. 

I can't tell you how angry I was that they overreacted to a few bad cases and ruined it for everyone else. But you've found a good place here. I've been helped tremendously already just in the open threads.

[Tbaronfl]

I find that, for me at least, tram is not very effective for pain relief, but is more effective at creating a mild sense of euphoria. Since I'm primarily concerned with controlling my chronic back pain, and want to avoid the possibility of seazures, it's not my med of choice. It's good that it's effective as a PK for some, just not for me.

[Hamil]

I'm trying this as a stop-gap solution for my depression, until I can get resupplied with my main AD.

[dynalift]

Absolutely agree. I found my depression and pain reasonably well controlled with tramadol. It's a mild drug that allowed me to go about my life and never once needed to up the dose over 5 years. That is until doctors refused to prescribe it anymore. Then I had to seek out an alternative, which, due to my particular locale, lack of good insurance, etc. turned out to be a much less effective and more harmful drug...suboxone. Thanks US Govt and all you snooping ninnies who made tramadol into a scheduled substance.

[mboxfrogger]

for a time tramadol was a miracle drug for me in that way. it helped anxiety depression and physical pain... and there has always been evidence it interacts with your brain like a short acting ssri and an opioid. in addition i could take a higher dose if i wanted to, and it improved my sex life. that was back 10-7 years ago before all the domestic pharmacies that offered online consultations were taken down, or at least the ones i knew about. these days, i don't know if it's just i'm older and i have stronger depression, anxiety maybe some other environmentally developed disorders like PTSD, or if my buprenorphine plays a factor as well even though historically tram is the only thing that breaks through sub for me, but i've taken it these days and it's not like it doesn't work, it has an effect, but it doesn't feel the same as it used to.. these days its just sort of a tired relaxed feeling. ive had other drugs/chemicals do similar things... change the way my body reacts to them... usually making them weaker .. sometimes over a long period of time, sometimes fairly quickly. dunno, where im going with this... but yes i would agree tram can be helpful for depression and anxiety as well as pain, no doubt.


- S.

[dynalift]

for a time tramadol was a miracle drug for me in that way. it helped anxiety depression and physical pain... and there has always been evidence it interacts with your brain like a short acting ssri and an opioid. in addition i could take a higher dose if i wanted to, and it improved my sex life. that was back 10-7 years ago before all the domestic pharmacies that offered online consultations were taken down, or at least the ones i knew about. these days, i don't know if it's just i'm older and i have stronger depression, anxiety maybe some other environmentally developed disorders like PTSD, or if my buprenorphine plays a factor as well even though historically tram is the only thing that breaks through sub for me, but i've taken it these days and it's not like it doesn't work, it has an effect, but it doesn't feel the same as it used to.. these days its just sort of a tired relaxed feeling. ive had other drugs/chemicals do similar things... change the way my body reacts to them... usually making them weaker .. sometimes over a long period of time, sometimes fairly quickly. dunno, where im going with this... but yes i would agree tram can be helpful for depression and anxiety as well as pain, no doubt.


- S.

Yeah, I didn't mean to make trams sound like the perfect drug, really, no drug is. Wish I could turn back time. I too have noticed my body/mind changing over the years and certain drugs stop working or become weaker. Just like I used to hate cucumbers as a child and now love them. I first noticed this with prozac: Years ago I experienced a sort of month long honeymoon period with it, and then within a period of a few days it just stopped working. The turnaround was really dramatic actually (I've since come to the conclusion that the serotonin/depression quest by big pharma is a huge, and possibly dangerous, blind alley).  Also, the whole thing about giving ssri's 2-4 weeks to work is bunk. I have always felt them within an hour of taking. I guess tramadol ranks pretty high because it never produced a 180 turnaround in function (either with pain or depression). I have never tried trams with sub so it's interesting to hear that it 'breaks thru' for you.

[mboxfrogger]

for a time tramadol was a miracle drug for me in that way. it helped anxiety depression and physical pain... and there has always been evidence it interacts with your brain like a short acting ssri and an opioid. in addition i could take a higher dose if i wanted to, and it improved my sex life. that was back 10-7 years ago before all the domestic pharmacies that offered online consultations were taken down, or at least the ones i knew about. these days, i don't know if it's just i'm older and i have stronger depression, anxiety maybe some other environmentally developed disorders like PTSD, or if my buprenorphine plays a factor as well even though historically tram is the only thing that breaks through sub for me, but i've taken it these days and it's not like it doesn't work, it has an effect, but it doesn't feel the same as it used to.. these days its just sort of a tired relaxed feeling. ive had other drugs/chemicals do similar things... change the way my body reacts to them... usually making them weaker .. sometimes over a long period of time, sometimes fairly quickly. dunno, where im going with this... but yes i would agree tram can be helpful for depression and anxiety as well as pain, no doubt.


- S.

Yeah, I didn't mean to make trams sound like the perfect drug, really, no drug is. Wish I could turn back time. I too have noticed my body/mind changing over the years and certain drugs stop working or become weaker. Just like I used to hate cucumbers as a child and now love them. I first noticed this with prozac: Years ago I experienced a sort of month long honeymoon period with it, and then within a period of a few days it just stopped working. The turnaround was really dramatic actually (I've since come to the conclusion that the serotonin/depression quest by big pharma is a huge, and possibly dangerous, blind alley).  Also, the whole thing about giving ssri's 2-4 weeks to work is bunk. I have always felt them within an hour of taking. I guess tramadol ranks pretty high because it never produced a 180 turnaround in function (either with pain or depression). I have never tried trams with sub so it's interesting to hear that it 'breaks thru' for you.

i think it's because chemically it's actually quite different from most opioids... and technically it isn't strictly an opioid... so it might be a case of not being recognizable.. it's also important to note that we don't actually get effect from "tramadol", the tramadol enters your liver and is turned into a chemical that is much stronger than the original. that's why it takes so long to kick in.

- S.

[Ladybugsrcool]

I have a question may be more suitable for this post. I too am helped immensely by tram. Depression, anxiety, I have RA and fibro also. I was looking for an SNRI suggestion that may work in some similar way? Obviously it won't convert to and oid in my liver but just wondering if anyone has any experience with SNRIs. I can't take wellbut at all it makes me wacky. SSRIs just seem like placebos for me other than prozaxk I seemed to have a little more luck with that one. Any suggestions I'd appreciate greatly!!

[Tara1178]

I have taken tr@madol for back pain before for a while and I do have a history of depression. I never noticed a difference or it helping me with depression, but maybe the dosage has something to do with it? I'm curious to find out more!

[Cricket]

I have taken tr@madol for back pain before for a while and I do have a history of depression. I never noticed a difference or it helping me with depression, but maybe the dosage has something to do with it? I'm curious to find out more!

I remember takin' it a long time ago but can't say anything about it helpin' depression, but it didn't help my pain either.
It did help my pup with her pain recently tho. Poor baby hurt her neck jumpin' off of my bed and the Tram has worked well for her. But now that I think about it, she seems to be depressed so maybe it doesn't help for that. Or maybe she's just havin' a bad day with her neck. Think I could take her to my PM doc with me next week???

Cricket