Author: Lillyval
Posted: Tue Aug 02, 2011 8:28 pm
| quadracersteve wrote: |
| You say that "opiates can cause tolerance in EVERYONE", which I totally agree with. But take my addiction out of the equation for a few seconds; what do people who need opiates to take their pain away do? If everyone grows a tolerance with them, what do they do when a tolerance is reached? I ask because I don’t know anyone with this problem, so advice is welcome. |
I guess I’m not entirely sure what you are asking when you say that you don’t know anyone with this problem. Do you mean that you know others taking opiates for chronic pain that do not require ever increasing dosages due to tolerance?
It’s my understanding that tolerance is the "fatal flaw" of opiate drugs. If it weren’t for tolerance many, many adverse events could be largely avoided (like drug seeking by addicts that can’t get enough to feed their habits, or overdoses by those at the high end of the dosing spectrum). Elsewhere on this forum I read recently that some doctors are saying upfront that they don’t precribe opiates outside of a hospital setting. Opiates are wonderful drugs that have alleviated a lot of suffering (think battlefields and cancer wards) but they just have this serious limitation, that they stop working over time. I think if I, or any one of us, could solve this dilemma, we would be rich.
You mentionned dopamine. Wellbutrin type drugs are said to raise dopamine levels. I wonder if something like that would help.
Feel better,
Lilly
