Posted by Elizabeth on January 23, 2002, at 13:35:04
In reply to Re: problems getting buprenorphine, posted by BarbaraCat on January 22, 2002, at 20:59:47
Are you getting any treatment for the fibromyalgia? I think chronic pain is disgracefully undertreated. Compounding the problem, there are several drugs on the market that are labelled as "muscle relaxants" which are really just antihistamines/anticholinergics and don't have any particular muscle relaxant effect; they're just sedating. (Some of them are structurally similar to the tricyclic ADs.)
I have chronic musculoskeletal pain (in my back, neck, and shoulders) too, although it's not fibromyalgia (the doctor I saw at a pain clinic in Boston thinks that it's related to a slight flaw in some of my thoracic vertabrae which causes them to press against the joints in between. I had a steroid injection in the two joints in question which worked very well (for a week or so, that is), showing that the whole problem is due to those two tiny little joints! (Chronic pain is a very weird and poorly-understood phenomenon.) Unfortunately, this didn't do much good since there isn't a way to correct the problem at this time.
Buprenorphine works very well for the pain as well as for the depression, and I haven't developed any tolerance to it. Of possible interest, Nardil also relieved the pain while I was taking it. I've also found Soma helpful. Benzos can help as well, although I think they are less reliable.
-elizabeth
poster:Elizabeth
thread:4588
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020116/msgs/91268.html