Anyone taking Valium

[sbulet]

Hello

This is my 1st post to this great site. I am a c-4 c-5 incomplete. I get these twitches in my right leg about every 15 - 30 seconds which cause me to take 2mg of valium which stops the twitching. Thank God! Otherwise it would be the perfect torture. The problem I have is that it makes me tired. I am the type of person that could drink 3 cups of cofee and go right to bed. I can not imagine doing this the rest of my life. Any sugestions.

P.s how could anyone become addicted or want to take valium as a recreational drug.

[Scorpion]

You may have better luck with Baclofen, as it drowsiness side effect isn't nearly as bad as Valium's.

~Rus

"We are not brave because we are free. We are free because we are brave." ~ Rich Ward (Stuck Mojo / Sick Speed)

[Scorpion]

Oh, welcome to the boards!

~Rus

"We are not brave because we are free. We are free because we are brave." ~ Rich Ward (Stuck Mojo / Sick Speed)

[Jeff]

I was taking 10mg per day. Later I quit cold turkey and had hellacious nightmares for over a week. Make sure you wean yourself if you switch.

~See you at the SCIWire-used-to-be-paralyzed Reunion http://www.stopstart.fsnet.co.uk/smilie/wavey.gif ~

[Joe B]

I took baclofen for spasticity up to 120 mg a day and it didn't control the spasms well enough by itself. The docs added 2 mg of Valium 4xdaily and I cut the baclofen in half. I didn't find that the valium made me sleepy at all after the first week. Been taking it for almost 14 yrs and no real problems from it though I have cut the dose of the valium and the baclofen in half.

Regarding the right leg twitching like a clock. Mine does to. I have enough sensation to feel pain in my sciatic nerve (in the buttocks where Gump got shot). It helps if I take weight off of it and use a good cushion during the day.

You didn't mention it but watch out for the long-term effects of amitryptiline/Elavil. I took it for central pain for years and It didn't bother me at first but I noticed my memory getting worse and worse. I was switched to Neurontin and my mind cleared up over a two year period. About normal for a 52 yr old now.

Best wishes with the leg.

Joe

[martha]

Do you think your "problem" was the combination of the amitriptyline/elavil? I'm curious because husband takes the amitriptyline and xanax each night and neurontin throughout the day, but no elavil. And his memory is totally shot.

martha

[Joe B]

I absolutely think that it was the amitryptiline. (Elavil is a brand name for amitryptiline). I had got so I couldn't remember the name of people at work that I had known for years. I knew I knew their name but couldn't come up with it.

I had thought it might be the valium I take but it is a low dose (2mg 4 x a day). I stopped taking the valium for a few weeks no change in memory just more spasms and central pain.

I talked with my neurologist and he said that amitryptiline was known to affect the memory far more so than more recent anti-depressants but they were less effective for central pain. That's when I was switched over to Neurontin. Took about 6 mos for me to see significant results (I had been taking it for over 10 yrs). Its been 2 years and I am back to where I was before. My wife definitely agrees. There is research on this on medline which first made me ask my neuro.

The ami helped me sleep at night and relieved the central pain differently than the neurontin. When a cold wet front of weather comes in, I may take a single 10 mg pill of ami because CP gets worse with bad weather.

Yes, talk with your doc but if you dont have a real need for ami, taper off and see if the memory improves.

Best of luck

Joe B

[martha]

Well, I feel even dumber than normal for not realizing they were the same drug. Some days are just more blonde than others. <G> On the rare occasions where we've run out for a night, he can't get to sleep without it. Guess we have a dependency going here, but with everything else I didn't look at that as a problem really. I'll just watch his memory (or lack thereof) and see if it gets any worse. Thanks again. I'm constantly amazed at what I learn by wonderful people on here sharing their information/experiences.

martha

[Joe B]

Just a short run through of Pubmed showed the following abstracts:Point of most of them is that, if needed, there are antidepressants that affect the memory less than amitryptiline. I'm amazed because these studies showed effects in only three weeks.

1.A comparison of fluoxetine and amitriptyline in the treatment of major depression.

Keegan D, Bowen RC, Blackshaw S, Saleh S, Dayal N, Remillard F, Shrikhande S, Cebrian Perez S, Boulton A.

Department of Psychiatry, Royal University Hospital, Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada.

Fluoxetine, a new serotonin uptake blocking antidepressant, was compared with amitriptyline in a double-blind study. Patients were diagnosed as having major depression, according to DSM-III criteria, when interviewed with the Diagnostic Interview Schedule. There was significant improvement in patient and observer ratings of depression in both groups, with no difference between groups. Recent memory improved significantly in the fluoxetine group but not in the amitriptyline group. Numbers of patients reporting side-effects were similar but the profiles of side-effects were different, with more patients on amitriptyline reporting anticholinergic and intolerable side-effects.

2.Sakulsripong M, Curran HV, Lader M.

Department of Psychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry, London, UK.

The psychomotor, sedative and memory effects of a sedative, anticholinergic antidepressant (amitriptyline), a sedative antidepressant (trazodone) and placebo were compared in a double-blind, cross-over study with 12 healthy volunteers. Amitriptyline (37.5 mg) and trazodone (100 mg) were administered for the first 7 days of treatment and in double-dosage for the next 7 days of treatment. Subjects completed a battery of tests before and 2 h after drug administration on days 1, 8 and 14. Over the 2 weeks of treatment, there was no accumulation of effects but subjects experienced marked sedation and psychomotor impairments following a daily dose of both active drugs. Although both amitriptyline and trazodone produced impairments on memory tasks, the effect of amitriptyline was significantly greater and may reflect its anticholinergic action over and above global sedative effects. Tolerance to the effects of amitriptyline built up differentially over measures of sedation, psychomotor function and memory.

3.Verbal learning by major depressive disorder patients during treatment with fluoxetine or amitriptyline.

Richardson JS, Keegan DL, Bowen RC, Blackshaw SL, Cebrian-Perez S, Dayal N, Saleh S, Shrikhande S.

Department of Pharmacology, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada.

After 1 week of a single-blind placebo period, and prior to being randomly assigned to receive treatment with either fluoxetine or amitriptyline, patients meeting strict criteria for a diagnosis of major depressive disorder were given an auditory verbal learning test of working memory, and a blood sample was drawn. After 3 weeks of drug treatment with either amitriptyline or fluoxetine, the patients' symptoms were evaluated, the verbal learning test was repeated, and a second blood sample was taken. The clinical evaluation, the verbal learning test and the blood drawing were repeated a third time 3 weeks after the second assessment. The amount of anticholinergic activity in the blood samples was measured by a competitive radioligand binding assay and expressed in atropine equivalents. Analyses of variance indicated that there were no significant differences at the predrug Assessment 1 between patients subsequently assigned to the fluoxetine group compared with those assigned to the amitriptyline group. At Assessments 2 and 3, the fluoxetine and the amitriptyline groups showed equal clinical improvement but patients receiving amitriptyline did not perform as well on the verbal learning task. Serum anticholinergic activity at Assessments 2 and 3 was considerably higher in the amitriptyline group. This supports the hypothesis that blockade of muscarinic receptors impairs working memory formation. Equally effective antidepressant drugs with little or no anticholinergic action, such as fluoxetine, may be preferable in patients with pre-existing mild cognitive impairment or in patients where a slight reduction in cognitive performance is not acceptable.

Joe B

[Scribe]

I broke my back and fractured 10 ribs in a March 13, 2000 auto accident. I'm a T-10 complete with right-side pain and pain at the injury level. I take Vicodin and I like it. Sometimes I take more than the daily dosage allowed.

I've considered getting a morphine pump. My doctors say I have to get off the narcotic pain meds. They have the old-fashinoned belief that narcotics lead to drug addiction. Sometimes that's true but ibuprofen doesn't help me.

Narcotics takes the edge off the anxiety that goes along with the pain. I'm an educated man and an avid reader. I'm involved in a political campaign and want to start writing a book. The pain meds don't interfere with this. It would be preferable to quit them but I don't want to. Does anyone feel the same?

[Suzin]

Hi Scibe,
I am a T-10 para incomplete and I've been in a wheelchair for over 25 years. The best thing you can do is to take your thoughts to a doctor who understands SCI pain. I will tell you my story.
I have suffered with severe chronic pain for many years and have only taken codeine after surgery then I returned to Motrin and hot showers. I was told that I shouldn't build up a tolerance to narcotics because if the pain gets worse somewhere down the road there would be nothing for me to take. Sure enough two years ago the pain got even worse, so bad I couldn't get out of bed. I am now taking codeine daily, they wanted me to take a stronger drug called MS Cotin but I refused to take it because I drive. Even though the codeine doesn't completely take the pain away it does make it bearable. My feeling is that I want to save the big guns for later down the road, because you just never know what your going to be confronted with. Good luck with your pain management and your writing. I'm sure a good doctor will steer you in the right direction.
Suz

[alan]

Tolerance is a normal occurence with opiate medications. Check out some chronic pain sites. You'll see that most pain doctors state that there's no maximum dose of opiates, so tolerance can be handled by increasing dosage when necessary. Of course, there's always side effects, but that's true with any med. Until something is tried, you can't know if it will help or if you can tolerate it or its side effects.

I've gone through pretty much the entire PDR so far. Meds either haven't worked, or I couldn't take side effects. I'll still try new stuff as it comes out.

[Scribe]

Suzin, I appreciate your thoughtful remarks. It's always nice to see responses that are well-intentioned and show goodwill. Scribe

[David Berg]

sbulet,

On another pain list I'm on several of the members occasionally mention trouble with Restless Leg Syndrome (RLS). I really don't know muchy about it, but you might be able to find some information of interest if you do a search with that term.

Also, if you write to me personally, I'll put you in touch with someone that I'm sure can provide some additional information on RLS.

David Berg
david@painonline.org

[The Human Cannonball]

Myoclonus is the twitching you are talking about. I have this and take clonzapem for relief.

http://www.ninds.nih.gov/health_and_medical/pubs/myoclonus_doc.htm
>

here is web site on Restless leg syndrome
http://www.ninds.nih.gov/health_and_medical/disorders/restless_doc.htm