DOSE: T+ 0:00	15-30 mg	oral	Pharms - Dihydrocodeine	(daily)
T+ 0:00	15 mg	oral	Pharms - Dihydrocodeine
T+ 2:30	200 mg	oral	Pharms - Tramadol

BODY WEIGHT:

115 lb

Tramadol for Anxiety

I took 200mg Tramadol orally to reduce anxiety about a hospital procedure I had today. It was a simple, yet painful outpatient procedure I have had done before, but I get extremely anxious and stressed about this procedure, and have been prescribed Diazepam in the past for this, which I have found helped slightly, but did not relax me as much as necessary. I had been prescribed diazepam for this time as well, but couldn’t justify paying the prescription price for 2 pills, so I thought I’d either take a couple of painkillers (see below), or try the mind-over-matter approach.

I am taking (and have been for around 6 weeks) dihydrocodeine for an injury which I'm in physiotherapy for, and is still pretty painful. Over the last couple of weeks I have reduced the dose from 90-120mg daily, to 15-30mg daily. This morning I took 15mg as usual.

About 2.5 hours later I decided to take 200mg Tramadol, for extra pain relief and to reduce my anxiety. I have to say, the painkilling properties of Tramadol are no better than straight codeine, and nowhere near the levels of dihydrocodeine, but it did (almost completely) remove my anxiety. I thought about the procedure but was unable to get worked up about it.

I have read that Tramadol can cause constipation, itching, nausea, dry mouth, the usual opiate side effects (despite being a synthetic sub-opiate, or something like that, forgive me I’m still on the plateau) and I was prepared for the small amount of nausea Tramadol gives me, and the dry mouth (all opiates give me dry mouth). I did not get much itching, excess sweating or other undesirable side effects, but then I have a pretty high tolerance, and a fair amount of experience with prescription opiates.

Of the three I am most familiar with, I would go with dihydrocodeine every time. Stronger than codeine, doesn’t give me any itching (codeine makes me really itchy), no constipation, and (personally) not particularly addictive (I’ve been able to come off them really easily, but then started again as I realized without the painkillers I wasn’t able to do my rehab exercises properly and I don’t want mobility problems for life), and no nausea like with Tramadol. I’m not anticipating any withdrawal or comedown, mainly because I am still taking the dihydrocodeine and will probably take another 15mg later to combat the pain from the procedure and injury.

Everyone is different though, I have a friend who took 200mg Tramadol and felt sick, itchy and fatigued for 3 days afterwards. Another friend took 2mg Buprenorphine (I wouldn’t touch that again, very horrible withdrawal) and had persistent nausea for about a week, although that could have been down to everything else he took that weekend, I did warn him not to take the buprenorphine, and he wishes he listened to me!

Exp Year: 2010	ExpID: 91089
Gender: Female
Age at time of experience: 28
Published: May 7, 2019	Views: 2,851
[ View PDF (to print) ] [ View LaTeX (for geeks) ] [ Swap Dark/Light ]
Pharms - Tramadol (149), Pharms - Dihydrocodeine (392) : Not Applicable (38), Therapeutic Intent or Outcome (49), Medical Use (47), Retrospective / Summary (11), Combinations (3)