Hi, gabbycakes:

Quote: "I just googled this medication and I don't understand why it is used together with opioids." I personally think that naltrexone should not be used with opioids like fentanyl because these opioids will become ineffective because of naltrexone. The fentanyl patch withdrawal symptoms caused by naltrexone are pure hell. I felt so sick I could not swallow anything without vomiting bile and I thought I was going to die. I was not depressed at that time, so these thoughts of impending death were not caused by depression.

I think that when naltrexone blocks the effects of a certain family of opioids, called opioid agonists, it blocks their bad effects (respiratory depression on those who abused opioid agonists by taking too much of them, voluntarily or not) and it blocks their good effects (pain killing effects).

As long as you do not mix this type of medication (opioid agonists, such as fentanyl, oxymorphone, hydromorphone, morphine, hydrocodone, and codeine) with medications such as naltrexone, you have nothing to fear. You will still benefit from the pain killing effects of the opioids. Your doctor can reassure you.