Drug info - Twitching on opiates

[CY33]

SWIM has recently recieved about 80 50mg Tramadol, 30 10mg hydrocodone and about 30 5mg hydrocodone. When SWIM takes these, he feels very good, very euphoric and very relaxed. SWIM also feels the itching of the drugs, but SWIM also notices that he starts to twitch when he tries to take a nap or when he sits completly still. SWIM says the twitching isn't really too bad or noticable, just a slight twitch here and there.

SWIM wants to know if this is normal on these type of drugs.

Thanks!

[Gradient]

CY33,

No need to worry, this is a common side-effect of opiates. See myoclonus; opioid receptors, and therefore opiate drugs, have been implicated in this strange muscular activity. This is why many people observe waves of hiccups when on high-dose opiates - the diaphragm enters a state of myoclonus.

Just out of curiosity - is twitching generated by both Tramadol and hydrocodone, or solely the Tramadol? Does one kind of opiate generate more twitching than the other?

Reputation Comments on this post:

	informative post
	TY! SWIM UTFSE and found your very informative and helpful post.

[CY33]

well SWIM took 300mg of tramadol today, and SWIM has been twitching a good bit. SWIM took the tramadol hours ago. when SWIM takes around 25-30mg of hydrocodone, SWIM starts to twitch a couple hours in. The twitching seems to be around the same. Just an occasional twitch, SWIM just needed to know if this was normal or not lol.

[trannyboy]

Yes, it is a known side effect of some narcotics. No, it is not ``normal`` as in good, healthy or desired. You should speak with your doctor. They may want to adjust the dosage or change your medication. They may decide that it is worth the side effect to properly manage your pain but it is something that should be discussed with your doctor as soon as possible.

Incidentally SWIM also has this effect when the levels are high enough to control the pain. In SWIM`s case the doctor said it was worth it to manage the pain. Especially because SWIM has it on all types of narcotics. SWIM also has it when not on narcotics but it is worsened by the narcotics.

trannyboy

[LinusMundane]

Speaking of hiccups, let SWIM tell ya, he is also a smoker and as any smoker can tell you, the worst thing to do while smoking is get the hiccups. On opiates, it happens every other cigarette, SWIM is all pro at getting rid of them now, but when it first started, it was hell.

Related to OP, SWIM also will get a big twitch now and again when trying to sleep, but he attributes it to the fact that he was probably dreaming about falling, like SWIM is prone to do.

[thebige]

Thank you Gradient for a fact based response.........
Swim used to get the twitch years ago,from very high,daily doses of narcotics.
Always believed it was from numbing up the central nervous system..........but as the years went by it became less and less of a problem....Swim figured it just took awhile for the body to get acclimated to the drugs....
Only twitch at the beginning of the withdrawal process these days...............sigh

[davestate]

Originally Posted by thebige

Thank you Gradient for a fact based response.........
Swim used to get the twitch years ago,from very high,daily doses of narcotics.
Always believed it was from numbing up the central nervous system..........but as the years went by it became less and less of a problem....Swim figured it just took awhile for the body to get acclimated to the drugs....
Only twitch at the beginning of the withdrawal process these days...............sigh

Full study and paper on tramadol and myoclonus, seems it does cause it more often.

http://www.lareb.nl/documents/kwb_2002_3_trama.pdf

Reputation Comments on this post:

Good contribution - well researched.

[Gradient]

Originally Posted by davestate

Full study and paper on tramadol and myoclonus, seems it does cause it more often.

http://www.lareb.nl/documents/kwb_2002_3_trama.pdf

davestate,

Well done, good find! Much appreciated - you should consider uploading this document to the file archive if it isn't already there.

[davestate]

Originally Posted by Gradient

davestate,

Well done, good find! Much appreciated - you should consider uploading this document to the file archive if it isn't already there.

No problem, if you want the references at the end of the PDF, these ones

References
1. Dutch Summary of Product Characteristics of Tramadol. http://www.cbg-meb.nl/IB-teksten/155...0-15511-15512-
15513.PDF (accessed 2nd October 2002).
2. The pharmacological basis of therapeutics. Ed. Hardman JG, Limbird LE. Tenth edition 2001, p 590.
3. Cherny N, Ripamonti C, Pereira J, Davis C, Fallon M, McQuay H et al. Strategies to manage the adverse effects of oral
morphine: an evidence-based report. J Clin Oncol 2001; 19:2542-54.
4. de Larquier A, Vial T, Bréjoux G, Descotes J. Syndrome sérotoninergue lors de l’association tramadol et iproniazide.
Thérapie 1999; 54:767-70.
5. Hiccup and apperent myoclonus after hydrocodone: review of the opiate-related hiccup and myoclonus literature. Clin
Neuropharmacol 1999;22:87-92.

I can D/L them when im back at uni, the first and last one is probably most relevant