# Tramadol/Ultram?



## bluebird274 (Dec 1, 2008)

I'm curious if anyone has experience with the pain medication tramadol. I was reading some comments in a forum and several people said it was an effective anti-depressant and anti-anxiety drug, and although it's a pain medication, it isn't a controlled substance. 

I've never tried it, and from what I've read it's probably not a good idea to use it regularly because it can be addicting, but has anyone been on it for a pain issue and noticed an anti-anxiety effect?


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## Medline (Sep 23, 2008)

I think you're on Parnate at the moment, so serotonergic Opioids like Tramadol are clearly contraindicated. Just a note for safety.


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## bluebird274 (Dec 1, 2008)

Thanks, I'm not planning on taking tramadol. I would have to exhaust some other options before considering it, and not be on parnate. But I read all I can about possible medications, and this one came up in my search, so I'm curious if anyone's tried it. 

I know I have to be real careful on parnate. A chunk of cheddar cheese can send you to the hospital, apparently! :afr


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## UltraShy (Nov 8, 2003)

Having access to literally thousands of tramadol tablets, I had in years past tried it to see if it would have any effect on my mental health (SA, OCD, GAD, depression). I'd read the theory that it might possibly be useful for such conditions.

I was desperate as nothing else worked, so I figured I might as well give it a try. I tried it at 400 mg daily (the max recommended dose) for several weeks and noticed no effects of any kind, not even side effects. It truly was a sugar pill. To see if I could possibly feel any effect at all I tried 700 mg (14 pills) at once. Don't try this at home, boys & girls. The result: absolutely no effect whatsoever. I wasn't brave enough nor dumb enough to try any larger a dose, since I'm well aware that risk of seizures with high doses puts a limit on how much one can take.

I would disagree with Medline about tramadol being an opioid. It's chemically unrelated to opioids. It does bind very weakly to opioid receptors, but its action is more complex than that alone. And real opioids such as morphine don't cause seizures and have no upper dosage limit -- the only limit being how much a patient can take before dying of respiratory depression, which can be stunningly high with opioid-tolerant patients.

Back in the late-1990s after about 5 million prescriptions for Ultram had been written in the US the FDA forced the maker of this drug to send a warning letter to doctors regarding the (very slight) potential for misuse, abuse, dependency, or addiction. This was based on about 105 complaints the FDA received, virtually all of them involving patients who already had a history of opioid addiction -- which clearly is not a representative sample of the general public.

I personally don't deem tramadol addictive. I'm sure not going to get addicted to a drug that produces no mind-altering effects at all. I have found that it does an OK job for getting rid of a back ache, but other than for pain I'd say it's useless. My mother has been on tramadol daily for the last 9 years for arthritis. Given that she rarely takes as much as she is prescribed even after nearly a decade to develop an addiction, I'd have to say I deem the risk of addiction to be virtually non-existent.

As for Parnate, tramadol is just one of dozens of meds you shouldn't take with it.


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## Medline (Sep 23, 2008)

> I would disagree with Medline about tramadol being an opioid. It's chemically unrelated to opioids. It does bind very weakly to opioid receptors, but its action is more complex than that alone. And real opioids such as morphine don't cause seizures and have no upper dosage limit -- the only limit being how much a patient can take before dying of respiratory depression, which can be stunningly high with opioid-tolerant patients.


Demerol can cause seizures too and it is an opioid. I consider every agonist at the opioid receptors an opioid, even weak ones.



> I personally don't deem tramadol addictive.


Nevertheless it can cause physical and psychological dependence.


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## UltraShy (Nov 8, 2003)

Medline said:


> Demerol can cause seizures too and it is an opioid.


Isn't that drug an oddity as well? Isn't it a drug that can only be used for a limited amount of time due to buildup of toxic metabolites?


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## stealyourface722 (Aug 31, 2008)

it made me sooooooooo angry. rage!! id punch things and couldnt feel it hardly. Other than that it made life tolerable but probably can lead to tolerance and addiction


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## Noca (Jun 24, 2005)

I take Tramadol sometimes, 112.5mgs at a time and I dont feel anything but pain relief.


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## UltraShy (Nov 8, 2003)

Noca said:


> I take Tramadol sometimes, 112.5mgs at a time and I dont feel anything but pain relief.


Noca takes what would be called Ultracet in the US -- tramadol mixed with Tylenol. I wonder how their R&D department came up with that stunning "new" drug? Was the prototype made with an Ultram tablet + a Tylenol tablet stuck together with Elmer's glue?


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## Noca (Jun 24, 2005)

UltraShy said:


> Noca takes what would be called Ultracet in the US -- tramadol mixed with Tylenol. I wonder how their R&D department came up with that stunning "new" drug? Was the prototype made with an Ultram tablet + a Tylenol tablet stuck together with Elmer's glue?


its Tramacet here and its expensive. I dont know why my doctor just doesnt give me a script for generic Tramadol.


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## korey (Apr 25, 2006)

Noca said:


> its Tramacet here and its expensive. I dont know why my doctor just doesnt give me a script for generic Tramadol.


Prescribing generic tramadol and advising that you take each dose with a certain amount of OTC acetaminophen would be too easy (sensibly and financially). We can't very well have doctors running around prescribing medicine in such a manner!


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## UltraShy (Nov 8, 2003)

Noca said:


> its Tramacet here and its expensive. I dont know why my doctor just doesnt give me a script for generic Tramadol.


The only thing I can think of is that some uptight docs might deem it to have less abuse potential with the toxic Tylenol (as if tramadol has any real abuse potential to start with).

If you were going to abuse drugs, I think you'd have to get pretty desperate before going for tramadol when you already have a massive stock of some of the most potent pain killers & stimulants available.


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## jeffma (Feb 20, 2008)

*tramadol dosage makes a difference*

for me anyway. when i took more than say 150mg at a time even sometimes that much, id feel that rage deal where i was really mad and didnt know why, became kind of a prick. however, at doses of around 100mg i found it to be extremely effective. for minor pain relief, back, mostly. it definitely helped me feel less depressed if only for 3-4 hours. i really liked it, alot, and would say it definitely has potential for abuse. if you have access to it, id definitely just try taking 100 mg and see how you feel after about an hour. after adderal, its probably the next best thing in combatting depression for me anyways.


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## Vini Vidi Vici (Jul 4, 2009)

tramadol, taken 50mg about 3 times a day, effectively relieved alot of my depression, some of my anxiety, and especially it helped alot to reduce my symptoms of OCD. but however, you get tolerant in less than a week. Tramadol is a combination of an SNRI, NMDA antagonist, Opiate, and 5ht2c antagonist....some people it won't work at all, if they have low CYP2D6 enzymes...this enzyme converts Tramadol into O-desmethyl Tramadol, which is alot more potent of a Opiate agonist. For me....tramadol helped alot, unfortunately it is very addictive, and i cannot get off of it. please don't take this drug. It will screw you over....and very few doctors will beleive you when you say you are addicted.....its really a horrible option. Even if you are about to die...it will help, but then its impossible to get off of it.


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## ippa (Jul 21, 2009)

i tried tramadol few times, its a great thing against anxiety and etc. when i took 100-150mg i become sooooo calm and happy, i remember smoking near the window and looking on the street and being calm as hell, usually i dont smoke near the window coz i feel anxiety people looking from opposite buildings and from the street, i live in ukraine, and tramadol now here is illegal like marihuana, it passed like 10 years from tramadol being here a freely med u could buy in pharmacy without prescription to fully illegal drug u could get to jail of if u buy it illegally.


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## euphoria (Jan 21, 2009)

Tramadol would be a lot better if it didn't have the seizure risk. Even without that, using mu agonists for psychiatric disorders probably wouldn't be such a good idea.


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## jim_morrison (Aug 17, 2008)

Vini Vidi Vici said:


> ....some people it won't work at all, if they have low CYP2D6 enzymes...this enzyme converts Tramadol into O-desmethyl Tramadol, which is alot more potent of a Opiate agonist.


Also, it should be taken into account that Paxil and Prozac are CYP2D6 enzyme inhibitors, so people on these drugs who take the opioids tramadol or codiene, are likely to have a diminished response, because as Vin has suggested, those drugs are reliant on the CYP2D6 enzyme for most of their conversion into the substrates which mediate some if not most of their painkilling efficacy (O-desmethyl tramadol, and morphine respectively.)


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