It's been a long time since I've posted.

Background information:
I have tried with no luck Cymbalta, Gabapinten and other forms of anti-depressants.

I’m taking:
Lyrica (150mg twice daily) with some relief.
Tramadol (100mg as needed) pretty good relief.

Here's the issue. At times I take tramadol every day for like a week before I notice it’s not as effective and I need to increase its dosage. At about a week of daily use I also feel like I start to become dependent. I then have to go off it for maybe week so it's as effective, also so I don’t become dependent on it.

If anyone has had success with other forms of pain medications that could be rotated on a weekly basis with Tramadol I would appreciate the input.

Thanks!

Has anyone had any luck with Tapentadol?

Hi Marty,

While medication rotation is sometimes used by doctors and chronic pain patients to help attenuate medication tolerance; I don't know that it will avert dependence. Rotation often avoids symptoms of withdrawal by—in effect—swapping one dependence for another, e.g. heroin & methadone.

Doc

I know what you mean about not wanting to overuse Tramadol, even though it works. I am the same way.

I used Cymbalta for my PN and while it worked, it was not worth the side effects. I took Topamax (generic topirimate) along with it because I could only handle 30 mg of Cymbalta. When I discontinued the Cymbalta, I stayed on the Topamax and discovered that it worked almost as well for the PN all by itself.

I tried Lyrica once and it gave me the worst headache. I researched medications and came up with topamax because it was weight neutral and there were reports that it would work. It did, with very few side effects (dry hair and finger tingling, but YMMV).

I have never tried topamax. For you does it work for your burning, pain or both? Lyrica keeps the burning under control, it the nasty pain in my feet and legs i need relief from.

The topamax (50mg-but you can go higher-that's all I needed) took away most of the tingling and all of the pain and pressure in my feet. They felt like normal again for the most part. I stopped taking the topamax when I discovered that the dextromethorphan (120 mg) I was taking for my back pain worked just as well on my neuropathy.

Never thought of that way but it makes sense. I must think things through carefully. Thanks

Hello, I am new to the boards. I have been on Nucynta ER 200mg 2xs a day since early Feb for SFPN.

It helps. It does not completely take the pain away for me. It took 3 weeks for it kick in and during that time I was calling my dr telling them the crap don't work and he kept telling me wait it out, all the sudden I had energy and my the burning and tingling dropped down quite a bit and I was like wow, I was even in a great mood.

Right now I think I need a dose adjustment because the burning and humming are coming back. I was on 3600mg of Gabapentin with the nucynta and still having pain so they just switched me to Lyrica 150mg 3xs a day. Whoa they are worried about the opiates being abused, heck I get more zonked on Lyrica than I ever had on opiates.

But long story short it helps enough that I have no desire to go off of it and try something different. I am just using it in combo with other meds and when the combo works it's great.

Welcome Ouchiefeet.

Do you feel that Nucynta ER has a high degree of a risk for dependancy?