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What is Low Dose Naltrexone?

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    What is Low Dose Naltrexone?

    What is Low dose naltrexone and where would I find it at? Long story short, most common prescribed meds does not help much. And MMJ is not legal here darn. It DOES help as I found out in a legal state not too long ago, in a measured way you dont have to smoke. Heard about the LDN, and the benifits. Any users can help educate me? Thanks

    #2
    Originally posted by Bootlegger View Post
    What is Low dose naltrexone and where would I find it at? Long story short, most common prescribed meds does not help much. And MMJ is not legal here darn. It DOES help as I found out in a legal state not too long ago, in a measured way you dont have to smoke. Heard about the LDN, and the benifits. Any users can help educate me? Thanks
    I've been taking LDN for about 2 years now and I doubt I will ever stop taking it. I was having some spasticity and fatigue issues and the issues went away after I started. 1.5mg a day at night before bed. Between that a d the CBD I've never slept better.

    It needs to be prescribed by a physician and you'll have to get it from a compounding pharmacy. Be cautious about what they mix it with.
    The future depends on what you do today.- Gandhi

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      #3
      Low Dose Naltrexone for Treatment of Multiple Sclerosis

      A Retrospective Chart Review of Safety and Tolerability

      Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology • Volume 35, Number 5, October 2015 www.psychopharmacology.com 609

      Copyright © 2015 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved.


      “Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune disease of the central nervous system that afflicts 400,000 people in the United States and more than 4 million individuals worldwide…

      Three clinical trials of LDN in MS have been conducted and report that LDN increases the quality of life of MS patients.

      Cree et al concluded from a trial… LDN daily was a safe therapy that improved quality of life, whereas Sharafaddinzadeh et al reported safety after 17 weeks of treatment and recommended that longer trials be conducted to evaluate efficacy. Gironi et al studied primary progressive MS patients treated with LDN for 6 months and reported increased endogenous opioid levels in the patients and improved MS.

      The LDN treatment of patients with other autoimmune diseases including Crohn's disease and fibromyalgia has demonstrated safety and efficacy of the therapy.

      A major symptom of MS is fatigue, which is one of the many characteristics that patients seek to alleviate. Improvement in fatigue was cited in these clinical studies after LDN therapy, which suggests that there is a potential link between upregulated endogenous opioid systems and fatigue.

      To determine the safety, tolerability, and effectiveness of LDN on fatigue, a retrospective analysis of MS patients prescribed LDN (3.5 mg orally, once daily) by physicians in the Department of Neurology at The Penn State Hershey Medical Center was undertaken… LDN was not prescribed to patients receiving daily chronic opioid medications. All patients were given the option of receiving LDN with the understanding that medication could be stopped if they experienced side effects.

      Some patients already receiving disease-modifying therapy (DMT) when started on LDN continued the standard DMT along with adjunctive LDN. Evidence of major drug interactions was monitored but no interactions were reported.

      The medical records of 215 MS patients, aged 18 to 65 years, seen in the MS clinic for a 7-year period (January 01, 2005 to May 31, 2012) and prescribed 3.5 mg LDN, orally, once daily, served as the study group. The LDN was provided by a licensed compounding pharmacy and cost the patients between US $30 to $50 monthly.

      Prescriptions for LDN were provided to 152 female (71%) and 63 male (29%) patients. The female to male ratio was 2.4:1 and more than 3 quarters of all patients had RRMS, a ratio similar to the prevalence cited in the United States. Clinically, 87% of the patients had RRMS and 10% had secondary progressive MS, with a mean disease duration of 10 years…

      Seventy seven percent (n = 166) of patients taking LDN for any period of time did not report any side effects. Six percent of the patients had insomnia, whereas 5% of the patients had excessive dreams. There was no evidence of increased side effects related to other immunomodulators when combined with LDN.

      No abnormal laboratory results were noted. Of the 215 patients receiving LDN, 57 patients (26%) were hospitalized during the duration of this study; 48 of these patients were hospitalized for non-MS–related events such as infections. No patient was admitted to the hospital because of side effects of LDN.

      Most of the MS patients began LDN therapy because of fatigue. Nearly 60% (n = 128) of patients receiving LDN for any period of time reported a reduction in fatigue with LDN therapy.

      Fifty of the 215 patients commented that LDN produced no relief from fatigue and 4 patients stated that LDN increased their fatigue levels.

      Regarding their quality of life and the perception of LDN's effects on MS, 130 patients (60%) stated that LDN stabilized or improved their disease and 75% of the patients reported improved or stabilized quality of life.

      Nine patients reported that LDN reduced the quality of life, and 8% of the patients had the perception that their disease increased while on LDN but provided no details.

      In conclusion, this chart review focused on 215 MS patients who were provided a prescription for oral LDN. The study reports that a significant number of patients found combination therapy of an immunomodulating agent and LDN to be tolerable and possibly beneficial. Some patients preferred to take LDN as a monotherapy. The LDN did not cause any unexpected side effects, and those reported were previously noted in the literature. The LDN did not potentiate the side effects of the immunomodulating therapies that the patients were receiving. Any hospitalizations in this study were related to reasons other than MS, and there were no hospitalizations due to LDN.”

      AUTHOR DISCLOSURE
      Anthony P. Turel, MD Department of Neurology The Penn State University College of Medicine Hershey, PA

      Keun Hee Oh, BS Ian S. Zagon, PhD Department of Neural and Behavioral Sciences The Penn State University College of Medicine Hershey, PA

      Patricia J. McLaughlin, MS, DEd Department of Neural and Behavioral Sciences The Penn State University College of Medicine Hershey, PA

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        #4
        I took LDN for about 4 years and stopped taking it about 4 years ago. LDN has a long story as an MS treatment, albeit it's not FDA approved for MS. All I can say is LDN is Low Dose because some doctors felt using Naltrexone 'off-label', and at a percentage of its normal dose would help their patients with many of the obnoxious symptoms of MS . The biggest drawback with using it is that you need to get it from a compounding pharmacy that fills this script, regularly ! And it may not be covered by insurance ! There are several sites that discuss LDN. Good luck

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