Low Dose Naltrexone
 

Has anyone had experience with low dose naltrexone helping with peripheral neuropathy? My integrated MD has prescribed it for me.

Tony
Idiopathic Small Fiber Neuropathy

I have nerve damage from hip replacement and tried to work with LDN prior to 2010 as I wanted to try everything to NOT do this surgery, but I could not get LDN work for me, I tried for 6 months with prompting from the LDN group and for me it was more trouble than worth it...I never got beyond .5mg but I know it helps MS patients and others. I have a friend who deals with CFS and she is talking about trying LDN, her sister RA is trying it now.

Hard to know until one trys, I had 1 terrific day on the .5mg and nothing after that...horrible constipation that I had to battle to continue to work with LDN.

I've read that it is useful. Please let us know how it goes.

I just was prescribed 2.5 mg of LDN from my new functional medicine/Lyme doc. It is not covered by insurance and has to be compounded, but it was very reasonably priced - $33/month. I'll give an update after I get a few weeks under my belt.

Yes, please keep us posted. I'm nowhere near the point of needing something like that, but I'm trying to keep up on all the treatment options that are available - in case I do need them in the future. From what I've read, LDN seems to have the potential to be very beneficial yet with a fairly mild side effect profile. But there doesn't seem to be very many legitimate studies out there, and very few doctors seem willing to use it.

There are a few studies out there, but not many. This drug will never be extensively studied because no drug company would touch this with a 10 foot pole since there is no money to be made from it. Many cutting edge lyme, pain, and functional medicine docs have been seeing good clinical results from this drug. I think if there is any hint of your neuropathy being immuned-mediated, then this might be a good option as long as you are not taking narcotics.

Dr. Pradeep Chopra has had success treating his CRPS patients with LDN. Don't quote me but I think he said that it works for about 70% of his patients and he combines it with gabapentin. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3661907/

Thanks for that link, interesting article.

Why is this not prescribed more?

Regular docs will shy away from it because there haven't been enough large clinical trials around it and isn't taught in med school. It's not a miracle drug, but it really seems to help certain people with immune related problems.


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A review of LDN in chronic pain:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3962576/