Tramadol and Tinnitus?

Has anyone experimented with Tramadol while having tinnitus? Does it help? Does it make it worse?

I been trying to figure this out and i have read somewhere that it should not be used if you have problem with tinnitus..

I mainly want this to ease my pain and help me sleep better at nights..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tramadol

 

Task...

Tramadol (Ultram) does not appear to have a "hearing signature":
http://www.drugs.com/sfx/tramadol-side-effects.html

Also, it can have some marked positive effects on resistant depression, which can be a cool thing if your tinnitus is driving you to drink, or into the wall:
http://www.drugs.com/comments/tramadol/for-depression.html

However, be aware that it is a 'narcotic' so to speak, and some people do not do that well on it or it does not work for their pain. I know a friend who has taken Clonazepam big time for many, many years and has a lot of depression. Adding Tramadol recently has more or less "cured" her...from basket case to functional! Some kind of synergy effect.

But each to their own. Good luck! Zimichael

 

P.S. Always check with your doctor first of course and tell him/her you have tinnitus concerns about ANY drug. You will also need a prescription for Tramadol.
Zimichael

 

I think taken in big doses it can cause Tinnitus or worsen it. There is a member here on this board who took it for several months before an orthopedic operation and afterwards as well. Of course it depends on the person, so maybe that wont be your case.
Also, Tramadol can make one very, very dizzy and not only for the night but for several days. Im not sure why you are in pain but maybe you should consider seeing if you can treat it? Also, for sleeping you can take sedatives and ssleeping pills.

 

I've never tried tramadol before but i've heard that its very calming. I guess is should try it and see how it is then, its not very hard to get in sweden illegal.

 

task... I'm not sure how old you are, or how much medical experience you have, but I can assure you that ANY drug can be harmful to someone. Unfortunately it mostly looks like "drugs", be they meds or street drugs, must be OK otherwise they would soon not be there right? I mean if a drug killed everyone who took it, word would get around pretty quick and no-on would be dumb enough to take it or buy it...you would think. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.......

Yeah, a few moments of thought and you soon see that is not the case is it!

Forget illegal or street drugs (which can be God knows what), it was approved meds that made my tinnitus so much worse and gave me hyperacusis for the first time. I also have bunch of doc friends, and my best friend has been an ER doc for 35 years. You don't want to know how many people just he has seen with bad, awful, even fatal reactions to 'drugs'.

I mean we are talking Sverige here, medical is as good as free! See a doc, get your Tramadol from a practitioner, who knows what else you are taking, that you have tinnitus, and can check for interactions. You owe that much to yourself.

Lycka till... Zimichael

 

Tramadol is a very strong pain killer used in situations of extreme pain. If you need smth calming, there are sedatives and anti-depressants for that. Tramadol is not calming or soothing, it will literally knock you out and taken in big doses can have pretty bad side-effects in the long term. Dont fool around with your health because you heard smth somewhere. Go visit an experiences psychiatrist who knows what he is talking about.

 

Sorry, but this is simply not correct.

Tramadol is considered an entry level opioid along with Codeine. For "extreme pain", stronger opioids are used.

Tramadol is an atypical opioid which actually does have some anti-depressant effects - but that is not its primary use. Agreed. All opioids have a "calming" effect. I have been on opioids (short term) many times during my "rugby career". It is actually quite pleasant - which is of course also why it is being abused by some people.

Tramadol when taken in clinical doses will not "knock you out". Tramadol is among the least addictive opioids which is why doctors prefer to prescribe it as starting point before moving on to something else (and if NSAIDs don't "do the job").

Does Tramadol cause tinnitus? I can't really say. But, it is unlikely that it does (my opinion).

 

Im speaking from personal experience My father and I both took it post operation and it literally knocked us out. Also my doctor warned me about it being a side-effect. Not addictive maybe, but will make you dizzy anyway. Unlesss one has actual pain I dont see why one should use them, considering that there are sedatives and anti-depressants available.

 

I am of course not going to disagree with a personal experience . But, let me say this: anyone who has ever been on a mild and a potent opioid, will know the difference.

In 2011, I had a Herpes Zoster (= Shingles) outbreak. Most people stay off work in such cases. I decided to go to work, and I was popping Tramadol pills like "candy". And I was able to work. Admittedly, I was not as productive as is normally the case...

 

I guess it just depends on who tolerates what

 

Just an additional two cents on this...I agree with both Stina and ATEOS. I comes down to personal reactivity/body experience with just about any/all drugs and even herbal supplements, etc. The "Bell Jar" concept is going to be the rule of thumb (for stuff that is at least approved and on sale, etc. - I'm not talking about heroin or the like of course!). Most people taking "med. X" will be fine; some will be more than fine and do really well, and others curse the thing to hell and back.

I took Ultram (Tramadol) for incessant, undiagnosable, abdominal pain about 10 years ago. It worked great for a while and I may have even got a slight mood enhancement from it. Though I think the mood part was just: "Thank God the darn pain has stopped!!!" Pain is a drain, period. Only side effect was some constipation I think (common issue with a lot of pain meds). Others in the "chronic what-on-earth-is-wrong?" patients group I was around at the time (who probably had Lyme Disease), did not do so well on it.

From my perusal Tramadol does not have a "hearing signature" ON IT'S OWN...but all bets are off if you mix other meds or street drugs with it. Who knows what can happen...and that was the main point I was trying to make. To not just go out and get a drug of this nature based on some opinion on an internet site. Once you have, or have had tinnitus, I strongly encourage due diligence even with meds or drugs prescribed by a doctor. Docs are human, they are fallible, but generally if you say: "Hey remember, I have tinnitus! Is this going to be OK???"...It's a lot better than just going solo.

Best, Zimichael

 

Tramadol is a completely different animal in comparison to codeine because of its SNRI properties.

Many people are able to tolerate it just fine, however it has a hefty side effect profile and extra care should be taken when using tramadol to avoid any possible interactions. I took a standard dose years ago, and ended up having closed eyed visuals for a good 3 or 4 hours then spent the next 8 hours vomiting. I've not had this sort of reaction to any other opioid or pain medication. My ex takes it regularly because of her crohns disease and gets a bunch of strange side effects. Anyway, point I'm trying to make that it should in no way be underestimated.

Anyway back to the OP:

What sort of pain do you have?

Regardless, you should not be sourcing pain killers off the street to self medicate for either your pain or your sleep. Tramadol isn't effective as a sleep aid, and you could end up in all sorts of trouble if you become dependent or make the mistake of combining Tramadol with another medication that might put you in serious danger.

You really need the supervision of a physician if you're looking to tackle some form of chronic pain and insomnia. Find a good doctor, explain your situation and concern about your tinnitus, and I'm sure you will be able to work out a regimen that will be suitable to your needs. But it's super important you don't start using Tramadol off the streets to self medicate, no good will come of it.

Good luck buddy!

 

Ears ringing 2wks after starting Tramadol 100 er 3wks ago. As the only change in meds and this forum I do believe I found my answer. I find it most annoying-the ringing that is.

 

A doctor prescribed me Tramadol, because I've got terrible pain caused by teeth and TMJ problems, I've noticed that when I take it my tinnitus almost disappears, and when the effect of Tramadol goes away, tinnitus comes again..
I wonder why this is happening ??
But anyway I avoid using Tramadol because I'm afraid it's ototoxic..

 

I took Tramadol for many years due to knee problems and for a few years after both knee operations ...took a while wean off to them but didnt help my tinnitus ......lots of love glynis

 

All opiates increase my tinnitus; tramadol seems worse in this regard than poppies.

 

What is "poppies"??

 

M'amn, you just asked a drug question to someone who knows way too much about this stuff, so be prepared for more information than you probably care about!

The flower papaver somniforum, commonly known as the Poppy, is commonly grown as an ornamental plant in the US. In other parts of the world, they are grown at huge scale as a cash crop, because they contain the drugs morphine, codeine and several other active compounds.

The earliest narcotic drugs were just crude extracts from the poppy plant, called Opium. In the 1850s or so, the Bayer corporation figured out that you could chemically modify morphine by adding two acetyl groups to it, making diacteylmorphine, which they named "Heroin" because it made users feel "heroic". Somewhat ironically, Heroin was originally marketed as a less addictive version of morphine, because some people theorized that because it was much faster acting, and much more potent, it might be less likely to lead to dependence. Of course the reverse was true: the fast action created tolerance even quicker, and the potency meant people got higher off of it.

By the 1920s, there was sufficient backlash that heroin became an illegal drug in the US, and in the 70s, the Controlled Substances Act explicitly lists all parts of the poppy plant (except the seeds, which are used in food like poppy seed bagels) as a controlled drug.

Narcotic painkiller drugs fall into two different groups: drugs which are derived in some way from poppies, including morphine, codeine, heroin, and then the more chemically complex newer drugs like oxycodone, hydrocodone and oxymorphone. These drugs are commonly referred to as opiates, because they are derived from the opium poppy. On the other hand, there is also a group of drugs which are synthesized from the ground up, but are structurally similar to morphine. Meaning, if you could look at the molecules themselves under extreme magnification, they are the same basic "shape", so when they enter the body, they will bind to the same neuron receptor sites as morphine does. These drugs are commonly referred to as opioids, and this includes Tramadol, Fentanyl, and a bunch of other things I'm forgetting. There are also some weird cases like the antidepressant Tianeptine: this is a tricyclic antidepressant, which works in the same way that the other TCAs like Mirtazepine do... but it also has a structural similarity to morphine, and in high doses, it will act like an opiate, as well.

The chemistry here is really, really interesting to me. For instance, it was long assumed that morphine worked because it happened to be similar to pain-relieving compounds that occur naturally in the human body, "endorphins" (the etymology of that word literally meaning, "morphine-like substance produced naturally by the body"). But, fairly recently, it's been shown that morphine itself is synthesized inside mammals (in doses far lower than what you'd get if you took a pill, of course).

That's more or less all off the top of my head, so I may be slightly off in some of my dates, but you get the gist of it.

You can sometimes buy dried poppies in crafting stores, because people make wreaths out of them. You can also brew tea with dried poppy pods and make a very crude narcotic tea; this is very illegal in most countries. So, there's a sort of weird set of legal concerns around all this stuff. Poppies are probably a much more problematic plant than marijuana, and yet are grown legally for ornamental reasons. Somehow "ornamental marijuana plants" have never really been a thing It's a shame, really... I think all plants are beautiful! Some of them are just nice to look at, some of them have useful drugs in them, and some of them are very pretty and very deadly, like Angel's Trumpet... but I digress.

 

you know; this is very interesting to me. Tramadol and the plant Kratom both have these SNRI properties, and both of them caused bad, obvious spikes in my tinnitus. On the other hand, a couple times a year I routinely consume codeine when I have severe colds (you can get it over the counter in my state) -- and it's never caused much of a change in my T. So, that makes me wonder if it's actually the serotonergic properties of Tramadol/Kratom that cause the problem... I'm quicker to point the finger that way, than at the noradrenaline activity, just because serotonin is clearly involved in a number of tinnitus pathologies, and my own tinnitus reacts very, very dramatically to the presence of various strong serotonin antagonists.

 

Hi folks, I was on tramadol for a few months (100 mg in the morning only) and once I stopped my tinnitus changed, a much higher pitch and the noise sort of inside my head. I'm fairly sure this came from tramadol. Nowadays I have habituated to the new level but it has not went back as it was before. So watch out.
Best wishes to all of you

 

I was prescribed Tramadol early in the year for kidney stones but I felt more relieved for the reduction of tinnitus torment. I say 'torment' rather than 'noise reduction'. So yes, Tramadol really helps with tinnitus.

I'm still taking tramadol on days of my most severe spikes, however, every time I use tramadol its effectivity reduces. So I take a reluctant attitude to taking it. I want to make this last as long as possible.

Tramadol's effectivity multiplies when combined with paracetamol (this is common prescribed practice).

I have had 12 months of improved tolerance of tinnitus with tramadol.

 

Hey, I was just curious about Tramadol too. I'm glad you are getting some relief. So you are saying that Tramadol actually reduces the ringing instead of just a placebo effect by calming you down to it? Also, you say that you had 12 months of improved tolerance. Does that mean it doesn't work as well or works just as well? Also, when you combine it with paracetamol does it lower your T further or just help with pain? Thanks for any help you can provide.

 

Hi @linearb,

Just wanted to let you know I very much appreciated all your great information on "poppies". Also thought you'd find interesting an experience I had yesterday after I ran across an article yesterday on Mercola.com entitled, "Is Poppy Seed Tea Safe to Drink?". After reading the article, I promptly went out and bought a few ounces of poppy seeds.

Last night I had my first cup, and thought I might have felt a subtle relaxation from it. But when I woke up this morning, I noticed a big improvement in how I normally feel, especially since my onset of tinnitus several weeks ago. I felt MUCH less heavy, even happy. When I went out to drive to an acupuncture appt. this morning, I couldn't believe how much less vulnerable I felt to the noises of the world (I have severe T & H).

During my acupuncture appointment, I noticed the T seemed significantly less intense, and possibly even lower in volume. But I for sure was able to relax better than normal. When I got home, I had a second cup of tea, and by late afternoon, went down for my usual nap. Instead of the normal hour of sleep, I slept almost two hours.

But the BIG thing I noticed, is that when I normally wake up from a nap, my T is at its absolute worst, and continues for as long as a couple hours. When I woke up today, I heard the T start its normal screaming, but stopped after about five seconds or so, and then promptly went back to baseline, which felt pretty miraculous to me!

So there's something going on for me with poppy seeds. When I searched this forum, I noticed you've mentioned them more than anybody else--and seem to know a great deal about them as well. I have no idea how this is all going to play out, but thought you'd find my 24-hour experience with poppy seed tea at least somewhat interesting.

Best...​

 

It seems to exacerbate my tinnitus. But I also take other meds that may be doing that.

 

I took Tramadol once. Half a tablet.

It quieted my tinnitus while I was on it, but 2 days after stopping it my tinnitus spiked to a higher pitched noise.

I personally would not take Tramadol again.