“You’re telling me that you went from 100mg of oxycodone per day to almost none in three weeks?” “Yes, that’s exactly what happened,” he replied.
Opioids (narcotics) have been used for many years. It’s counter-intuitive to think that a drug like naltrexone which blocks the effect of opioids to help manage chronic pain. We do have some understanding that LDN (Low Dose Naltrexone) helps with autoimmune conditions. Current literature in pain medicine supports the view that chronic pain, especially chronic nerve pain conditions such as Complex Regional Pain Syndrome, Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy, Diabetic Peripheral Neuropathy are autoimmune based. A study done on treating Fibromyalgia pain with LDN showed a 30% reduction in symptoms. Below is a short description of the mechanism behind chronic nerve pain.
Naltrexone was researched and introduced in the 1980s for treatment of heroin addiction. Since then the medication has been extensively researched for treatment of different disease processes. More recently naltrexone has been introduced for treatment of alcohol and opiate addiction. It can be administered as a monthly injection. Earlier naltrexone was available only as a tablet that needed to be taken daily.
Over the past decade of prescribing LDN, it has become clear that this drug not only has some special qualities but is prone to marked individual variation in response. This variation is presumably due to differences in metabolism of the drug which can making the same dose ineffective in one case and effective in another. Liquid formulation of LDN allows dose titration and individual dosing of the drug. Doses depends on the individual response which can be from 0.5 mg daily to over 20 mg.
When I was in the 5th grade of a public school in New York City in the 1940’s, a new boy arrived in our class. He was obviously a very brilliant kid (and someone who was promptly treated as a “nerd” or a “geek by my friends). Bernard Bihari’s new home was only a block away from mine, so we would walk to and from school together, and a friendship was established. During college, we both decided to take pre-medical courses; Bernie was accepted at Harvard Medical School and I went to Cornell Med. We managed to keep in touch from time to time.