Has anyone heard of, or experienced, heightened anxiety as a result of taking pain medications?

I am on hydrocodone 10mg which is working well for my pain, however, it causes me to have feelings of intense anxiety. It only happens when I do take the medication. I am not taking anything else.

The anxiety consists of your basic anxiety symptoms such as worrying, nervousness, panicking, being jumpy, etc. It is very uncomfortable & disruptive. I'd prefer not to stop taking the hydro as it is the only treatment that has worked for my pain.

I have been told to try a low dose of clonazepam (sp?) but any dose that would effectively treat the anxiety puts me RIGHT to sleep. Literally. Even a low dose.

Are there any anxiety medications which have very LOW incidence of sedation? Or is there a different pain med that perhaps does not have this side effect?

Thanks

For some reason Hydro gets me sort of wired but doesnt cause me any anxiety. If I take it more than 3 days in a row it starts to lose effectiveness anyway.

I seem to remember a thread somewhere discussing the effects of pain meds on anxiety - in reference to whether doctors ever prescribe pain meds to treat anxiety.

One thing one must be aware of is the effect of mixing medications that affect your respiratory system.

You should ask your doctor.

Actually, I have experienced anxiety from hydro, a couple times. But most of the time I do not experience any at all, in fact the opposite, everything's gonna be all right.

There are other pain meds, like codeine and oxycodone. It seems like it would be preferable to take one pain med and not have to take medicines just for the purpose of handling side effects of ther meds. I'd talk to my doc about trying a different pain med. It could have something to do with diet or some other med, too. Are you taking any other meds over the counter or prescription? How about caffeine based products at the same time?

That's interesting. I always assummed the lure of pain meds was the euphoria that often accompanies their use. I also assumed the only anxiety associated with mnost users of these meds was the apprehension over where to get more.
Clearly that's not what you two are refering to but as we all know not everyone reacts to meds the same way or reacts to them the same way each time they are used.

I would definitely not assume that "the lure of pain meds was the euphoria that often accompanies their use."
The use of pain meds for the vast majority of patients is to reduce their pain levels. However, as you relate, there is clearly a population of users who have other goals in mind.
Regarding the side effects of hydrocodone, there is consistent evidence that the drug can cause fear, confusion and anxious feelings. Many patients report sleeplessness as an unwanted side effect also.
While morphine formulations can have similar reported side effects, I have not seen them associated with oxycodone.
Perhaps that could be an alternate treatment for the original poster. Adding another addictive drug like Klonopin to offset the negative effects of hydrocodone could end up being a very slippery slope.

What about codeine, at a higher dose than T3s that could be an option.

I agree it is not the best solution to take another med to counter the side effects of the first med, IF it can be avoided.

Sometimes hydro makes me anxious or happy (euphoria is such a strong term). But I often think that is just cause my brain is getting a chance to focus on something else besides the pain, for a change.

Typically, the side effects regarding confusion, agitation, sleeplessness for codeine are similar to morphine.

Well then codeine would not be a good substitute for the op. Thanks for the info MD. Learn stuff every day on this site which is why I like it.

I was not implying that this poster or anyone else on this board was seeking pain meds for recreational use. However there obviously are many people in the world who are 'lured' to these meds because of the pleasureable side effects. Of course we all know what comes from that life choice.

I was merely commenting on the irony of the posters situation where so many seek a thing designed to help people suffering from pain for pleasure instead and the poster who, I would bet, wishes he didnt need it experiences the opposite effect - no offense intended.

I am just curious how long you have been taking this medication and how often you feel anxiety as a result. I ask because the anxiety may subside if you just started the medication. I was also thinking you may want to split the pill in half and take each half an hour or two apart.

for me, pain killers seem to take away my anxiety. I used to take xanax or valium, but noticed it was getting a little scary when I took them with my pain meds. so I stopped and noticed that I only had anxiety when I wasn't taking my medicine.

On the few occasions that I have taken Hydrocodone (root canal, and the rest of my leftover tablets for my back pain) the only side effect that I suffered was severe insomnia.

Now that I am going to be going to a physician that is most likely going to write me a Hydrocodone script, I worry about that. I suffered from a bad bout of insomnia ~10 years ago - nothing at all helped it, No OTC or prescription sleep meds would even allow me to take a short nap. The strongest med that my Dr. at the time prescribed me was 10mg of Valium. I took 4 fo them and they didn't help either. A friend of mine who suffered from panic attacks gave me a couple of his 2mg Xanax tablets. 2mg knocked me out. But no physician would even consider writing a script for it.

In fact I got a huge lecture from my doc when I asked for it. He asked my why I was asking for it, and I foolishly replied "because it works" When he asked me how I knew it worked, I told him the truth. I got the lecture about how dangerous that is, and that he's the doctor and he knows what is best for me, etc. Funny thing is when I got discharged, I was trying to find my old physicians. Out of the few physicians I had, he was the only one I couldn't find.

He was too young to retire, so I looked him up with the state licensing board - his medical license was revoked due to incarceration. Digging a bit deeper - he was in prison for vehicular manslaughter. Seems he was blitzed out of his mind (booze) and got behind the wheel. End result - 2 people dead because of the 'good' doc.

something that helps me sleep when I cant, and is safe to take with pain killers is Flexeril (cyclobenzaprine) and trust me, I can handle a lot of medicine, and 10mg of these help make me drowsy and eventually put me to sleep. and I have lots of problems with insomnia. I swear I'm a robot some days.

Thanks - I have to keep that in mind. I know that Soma makes me a bit loopy, but I want to keep those around in case my back should go into a full state of spasm again.

Do the NROP's that carry Viagra, muscle relaxers, etc carry Flexeril? I am going to one of those face to face consults in another week or so (as soon as I can gather up all of my records), and I am not sure (don't know) if the doctor will write more than one script.

I don't want to say that Hydrocodone brings on severe insomnia in me, because then I am afraid that he won't prescribe it. The Hydrocodone is the only pain medication that will relieve my pain while still allowing me to function.

The Percocet that I had been prescribed helped the pain, but turned me into a zombie basically - I couldn't function at all. Even getting out of bed to walk to the bathroom was difficult.

yeah, you can get flexeril from almost any online site. its not a scheduled drug. its chemical name is Cyclobenzaprine (hope I spelled it right) the ones I got scripted to me when I was in the car wreck were the 5mg, but normally they come in 10mg yellow pills, I take two of the blue ones to equal this. they don't do much for relaxing muscles honestly, I keep them around for when I cannot sleep. I've never taken Soma, but I heard they're excellent for muscle spasms and stuff.

Yes - the Soma is. My first script was from my former pain doc - for 250mg. But due to a snafu with the no-fault.....they weren't covering any more prescriptions till something was straightened out.

250mg Soma is not available as a generic. I called and begged the doctor to change the script to 350mg, but he wouldn't. 90 tablets of the 250mg is way over $200 - money that I don't really have.

I filed it once because I needed it - used a prescription discount card to shave some money off the price, but I couldn't afford to fill it again (no fault issue still wasn't straightened out).

That's when my back went into a full state of spasm of course. I ordered the 350mg from one of those NROP's and thankfully it got here the next day.

Luckilly I had my TENS unit, which helped quite a bit, but I was still in a hell of alot of pain. As soon as FedEx came, I tore the envelope open and swallowed one of the 350mg Soma's - within 20 mins the spasms settled down.

I don't want to be without them on hand again for as long as I'm dealing with these injuries.

I was about to say, I don't think it costs that much even from an online pharmacy. but then again, i've never looked. I just don't see how it could be that much.

If only that were true! Maybe they don't write it for insomnia, but plenty seem to write it for general anxiety.

Not my physician at that time. The strongest that he would give me was Valium. He totally flipped when I told him about the Xanax. But at least it got the job done.

He had tried every prescription sleep med that was available at the time - nothing worked. All Ambien did was give me a headache. All the rest were like taking baby aspirin.

mmmm baby aspirin. love the orange taste.

Well that proves that alprazolam is suited well to being a hypnotic. You might only need 0.5mg occasionally to get a good sleep. Its duration of action is such that is should give a few hours.

It also proves that diazepam can be used for sleep also, or "insomnia associated with anxiety" as they put it sometimes.

All benzos have the same properties in terms of inducing sleep, relieving anxiety and relaxing skeletal muscle.

I think if one has good experience with xanax. you should also try klonopin (clonazepam), to me it feels the same and everything, it just lasts longer. but like nephro said, you should really try taking a lower dose if what you're trying to do is use it as a sleep aid. I"m thinking with 2mg, what you're doing is knocking yourself out, which in the long run is gonna be addictive and the withdrawls from benzo's is VERY bad.

I know, and that is the last thing I want. But nothing else works when the insomnia comes. I have to go see one of my docs on Monday - I'll see if he can suggest anything. Maybe Ambien CR will do it....I don't know - it wasn't available the last time I suffered a bad bout like this.

The time that I did take the Xanax to get to sleep, I first tried .5 mg - it did nothing. I went then to 1mg, the to 1.5mg and then finally took the last .5mg to equal the full 2mg dose. That's what did it.

I have and always have had a high tolerance to alot od medications. Not all medications (Percocet knocks me for a loop), but quite a few medications. It seems that sleep meds and Xanax, Valium are amongst the meds that I have a high tolerance to.

The rest of the men in my family are the same - different meds for different men, but we all have high tolerances for one thing or another.

Tonight I'm up because my lower back flared up - usually I'm fast asleep by now. I dozed off for a couple of hours, but that was that. Doesn't make sense to even try to go back to sleep now as I have to be up at 7am to get my car to the shop (inspection time).

Once my back calms down hopefully I'll fall out. Lord knows I;m tired enough to - I just can't manage to do it.

The lower back I can deal with on it's own. But when it flares up like this, the pain radiates down my legs. That makes it almost unbearable to sit, stand, walk, lay down, etc. Usually a session on the TENS unit takes care of the legs, but not tonight.

If worse comes to worse I'll take a Soma later on to help put me out. I just don't want to waste them. Right now all I have for the pain is Arthrotec, which basically does next to nothing. But it's better than nothing (if that makes any sense)

The only thing that Valium ever did for me was to relax the muscles in my neck when my neck was really bad right following the accident. Other than that it doesn't make me drowsy - it didn't do much for insomnia either when I took it back then.

When I did take the Xanax that time, being knocked out was fine by me. At that time I had been awake for over three days straight - at that point I wouldhave done anything to get some sleep.

As for today, I just really want to get some rest. With the exception of the short nap I had earlier, I've been awake since 6am Fri. After I drop my car off I'll try to get to sleep - my family has been using this mechanic for years, and he won't mind if I leave the car there till Monday.

ps. make a list on word or whatever of all the meds you've tried. It really goes a long way to showing the doc what NOT to give you.

Good luck hon.

my routine involved 3 different meds, but not taken at the same time of course. I do need an ativan to avoid the anxiety I get by being scared I can't sleep. Hubby thinks it's weird, but he doesn't have insomnia at all.

I take up to 3 30mg of oxy a day. I take up to 2mg of Xanax to put me asleep. A 10mg of IR Ambien works well too. I switch between the 2. I Sometimes need nothing but I wake up at 4AM and take .5 of Xanax to get me through the night.

Know your body and take the least amount of Xanax possible. I get very nervous about mixing meds.

BOL,

Fubu

I know what you are going through Warvet, I too have back problems. I can no longer sleep in my bed. I restrict myself to the couch so I do not move too much. My scripts are hydro, methadone and Somas. I also take Xanax for my anxiety. I do not take all of these at once.

I will tell you what does help me sleep even if it's just for a few hours. I take my xanax along with my Soma at the same time. It really works, and I better be close to the couch within the next 30 minutes or less. I sleep like a baby. It's good hard sleep. My back ends up waking me up a few hours later and I take my pain meds and need to wait for my back to settle down again. But those few hours I get are priceless. I do not sleep on my back and put a bean bag pillow between my knees and another behind my back. I was given this info when I was in physical therapy. When you are sitting in a chair, those same pillows can make a makeshift lumbar for your back. Also I use a memory foam pillow. It cost about $20 at Walmart and I got the flat one. I cannot use any other pillow. Well worth it.

Cold weather is coming and we need to be prepared. I think I'm going to be a hermit. LOL

I hope my advice can help you. I am in pain 24/7. I've been dealing with this for 2 years now and have learned a few tricks for my own benefit. You can stay on the bed if you want, but you need to restrict yourself from turning. A memory foam topper will help. I have a 3" one. Could use one more. I got mine at a very good price from Ebay that sells nothing but those. The ones from Walmart are junk. I wasted my money on them.

Good Luck,

Taz

The thing about these 'lumbar' devices is that they only suit patients who have vertebrae misaligned away from the back, and even then I wouldn't use such a thing without a qualified physiotherapist or similar expert in anatomy giving it the thumbs-up. My lower vertebrae are too far into the body, so that sort of device would make things worse for me. Unfortunately, it's not easy to pull these vertebrae out into their proper place; bending over whilst holding a weight results in several crunching sounds, and it provides temporary relief.

The problem is that over the years, the tissue surrounding misplaced vertebrae ends up in the wrong position also. People (especially in sport) used to say (and some still do) that sleeping on your back on a hard wooden board helps, but it doesn't help in cases like mine, and makes it worse as the shoulders and pelvis become closer together, making the back arch even more.