Science-Based Medicine » Low Dose Naltrexone - Bogus or Cutting Edge Science?

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Larry,

Thank you (and everyone else who's responded!) for the kind reply.

I have to say that the various types of dreams that are caused by either certain

opiates (morphine being the worst offender in my experience), or opiate

withdrawal in general...aren't generally that pleasant for me. I've had to put

up with them for years, when I was already struggling to keep mentally positive

despite the extreme nature of my pain and my condition....at times they can be

profoundly disturbing, as when I was on morphine and had a multi-month series of

dreams where I was being crushed and/or suffocated to death. But I'd be willing

to tolerate the more benign forms of them in exchange for the kinds of benefits

I've heard about.

We'll have to see what my doctor says in a couple of weeks here when I see him

next.

Personally, my big debates right now are whether to go off of opiates again

completely before initiating some kind of naltrexone regimen....and whether I

should start in " Low " (milligrams) or " Ultra Low " (micrograms, as little as

15-25mcg to start) dose ranges. The latter would almost certainly be less likely

to present any undesirable effects if I decided that now was a bad time to go

through the tapering process -- which it is; I'm moving my wife and two small

children into a much better and healthier home this month. I'm marginally

physically functional on a good day with decent pain management, so obviously

it's a tough call but either way, I don't want to put off getting started on the

process of figuring out what exactly (U)LDN can do for me and allow me to do for

my family.

One of my primary conditions (a very severe case of Chronic Pelvic Pain

Syndrome, caused by a series of staph infections that left a lot of scar tissue

and chronic inflammation) involves the prostate and other reproductive

structures, so I'm certainly interested to hear of potential benefits " in that

area, " as it were. A considerable amount of my pain is rooted there, and it's

among the most difficult to tolerate for reasons that I think any man -- or any

human being who's experienced severe pain over the reproductive nerves -- can

all too easily understand.

I will try to manage my expectations since I've tried so many things over the

past decade for my health problems and not gotten very far....but it's also good

to know what to look out for. And what I've learned in the past few weeks --

after years of knowing about U/LDN but not pursuing it because it might be " too

far out " for even my forward-thinking doc -- certainly has me motivated to get

on with it.

In the meantime, I suppose I should give the whole group fair warning. I do try

to be succinct when I can, but about a topic that matters this much to

me....principally in being able to take better care of my family instead of

being a half-dead lump in the bed....I tend to get verbose, if you hadn't

noticed. ;-) So be ready for some ranting on occasion.

- from Maine