0:00 Hello my medical smarties! Welcome back to Med Made Easy, channel to make medical concepts and topics much easier to learn and remember. Before we begin, make sure to check us out on our Facebook page, Instagram, Pinterest, and also TikTok. As a reminder, this video does not substitute for medical advice. Please seek out any medical advice from a healthcare provider. Today's video is about tramadol withdrawal. Traminol is a controlled substance that is sometimes prescribed for issues like chronic back pain and it's considered a synthetic opioid. Unlike other controlled substances, it's a much weaker form of a pain medication. but there's still that potential for it to become habit forming and an individual can actually develop a tolerance to this medication. In other words, they may need more and
0:45 more. When an individual is trying to discontinue Tramadol, it is extremely important to avoid abrupt cessation of this medication and instead taper down slowly, depending on how much and how long the patient has been on this medication. So let's jump right into the 11 things you need to know about Tramadol withdrawal. Number 11, a major something that individuals often complain of is that you feel very foggy headed, that they can't seem to concentrate or focus on whatever they're doing. And this usually happens within the first couple of days, sometimes into the second week, but definitely this feeling of just not feeling like yourself and you really just can't focus on the task at hand or whatever you're doing. This feeling of lack of concentration happens more often when
1:31 there's a bigger percentage of decrease suddenly and it does obviously affect the brain and nervous system in multiple different ways and so this can definitely cause issues with your the way that you think and concentration and just your focus in general this is important because like with most medications that individuals need to taper off of for whatever reason The slower that you taper, the less withdrawal symptoms that you'll likely experience. And so this can be done, depending on how long you've been on the medication, this can be done over even months sometimes if you don't want to experience those symptoms. But definitely the slower that you taper, the less withdrawal symptoms that you'll experience. Discuss this with your primary care provider to find a plan
2:17 that's right for you. One of the most common reported symptoms from withdrawal is flu-like symptoms. This usually happens early on in the first week after coming off the medication. To lessen these symptoms, the individual should taper down slower because it can feel like the individual has the flu. They may feel very achy, they may feel very... they may feel almost feverish and even report things like chills and just overall feeling of just not feeling well. Hi, I'm Al. I don't feel very good. I think I got the flu, but I don't think it's the flu. I actually think I'm just withdrawing from Tramadol, but I don't know. What do you think? Hi, Al. Doctor here. Yes, I do believe that this is
3:03 actually your Tramadol withdrawal symptoms that are developing. It's very common to develop flu-like symptoms after stopping your Tramadol for a certain period of time. It's extremely important to talk with your primary care provider when trying to come up with a tapering plan. It depends on a lot of different things, like how long you've been on the medication, what your dose is that you're taking it for, and if you're someone who has kind of more of an addictive personality or someone that tends to grow through more of the withdrawal symptoms, you may consider doing a five to 10% decrease each week. And so that's definitely something you want to talk with your primary care provider, but That is typically what is recommended. Hi, it's Al again. I was on 50 milligrams three times a
3:53 day and I dropped it down to just once a day. Is that okay to do? Hi Al, that is a bit of a drastic drop in one day. It does depend on how long you've been on your medication. So we might want to go a little slower than that and not such a drastic drop decrease in the dosage that you're taking for a day. This will help you to experience less side effects withdrawal symptoms if we do a little slower than this. Exercise may actually help with trimidol withdrawal symptoms. Exercise affects serotonin levels in a positive way. as it can naturally increase serotonin levels in the body. Tramadol also affects serotonin levels by inhibiting the reuptake of serotonin in the
4:39 CNS. In other words, it helps to keep the serotonin around longer. We often think of serotonin as the feel-good neurotransmitter. As one would expect, when an individual decreases tramadol use, this can drastically affect serotonin levels. This is often why individuals feel anxious and agitated during withdrawal from tramadol. you're coming off of tramadol a lot of times that serotonin is affected and so that's why exercising I can really actually help a lot with the withdrawal symptoms when individuals start tramadol often the side effect of terminal is that they an individual becomes constipated and so naturally a lot of times what happens is the stools actually become looser so the individual may notice feel like they're having diarrhea or just a often having frequent loose
5:28 stools. So that is something that individuals may notice when they're coming off of Tramadol. Because Tramadol can't affect neurotransmitters in the brain, individuals as they're withdrawing from Tramadol often feel anxiety and agitation. This is definitely something that is experienced with Tramadol withdrawal. Hi, it's Al again. I'm getting a little bit anxious since I stopped my medication. Is this normal? Yes, Al, this is normal and we can decrease this side effect if we go a little bit slower with a drop in the dosage amount per week. As when withdrawing from other opioids, the individual when they're coming down off or withdrawing from tramadol, they
6:14 may feel very sweaty and they may feel hot all the time. They may even get some chills, almost feeling like they're just the temperatures unregulated. Individuals who are withdrawing from tremol may feel very restless and have difficulty sleeping and staying asleep. So they may wake up several times during the night. This may happen over a course of a few weeks to a month or so, but definitely this is something that is often experienced with withdrawal. Symptoms can start as early as 6 to 24 hours after your last dose. and it can last for four to ten days on average. I have seen some individuals, however, who have lasted longer than ten days and this depends on the dose they were
7:02 on and also how many years that they were on it. Individuals sometimes report that they, when they're withdrawing, that they feel like their skin is crawling or that they don't like certain things touching their skin and they might even get some goosebumps as well. This is typically going to be more in the early phases of the withdrawal. What's important to understand about withdrawing from Chernobyl is that everyone is different. What one person may experience, another person may not experience at all and vice versa. That is the 11 different informational tips about tramadol withdrawal. And here is a brief list of some of the other signs and symptoms of tramadol withdrawal. It's important to note that some people may have one or two
7:47 withdrawal symptoms and then other people may have multiple. So it's really important to discuss with your primary care about what to expect and what your plan is going to be. This video, once again, does not serve as a substitute for medical advice. Definitely make sure to seek advice from your primary care provider. Let's see what you learned from this video today. Let's see how many of these questions you can get right. When do tramadol withdrawal symptoms begin after the last dose? A, three hours, B, 30 hours, C, six hours, or D, one week. What's your answer? If you guessed C, you are correct. Next question. What is an ideal tramadol percentage to decrease each week when trying to taper down? A, 50%, B, 5%, or C, 20%.
8:38 What's your answer? If you guessed B, 5%, you are correct. And the final question, this is a true or false question. When an individual tapers off of Traminol, they often develop constipation. True or false? If you answered false, you are correct. Individuals typically will develop diarrhea over constipation, Make sure to comment in the comment section how many of these you got correct. Alright everyone, that's it for this video. Make sure to give this video a thumbs up if you like these kind of videos so we know to make more of these kind of videos. And also please subscribe, it means so much to us. We love our subscribers. And let me just end this video with a quick quote. I'm going to start ending my videos with an inspirational quote about medicine
9:28 or something similar. And today's quote is for this video is, wherever the art of medicine is loved, there's also a love of humanity. Hippocrates. In the comment section, I'd like to hear what you think about this quote and what you think it means. Stay tuned into our next video.
