Opiate Cure for Bipolar?

Has anyone been treated for Bipolar Disorder with opiates? Has anyone noticed their bipolar induced symptoms diminish, after taking an opiate based med for another problem? I just got done reading 'The Opiate Cure', after my pdoc brought it up at a recent appointment. I'm curious if anyone else has experienced this phenomena.

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Sounds dangerous.

Idk it prob would be helpful but I dobt you will get prescribed it for anything other then pain.

A lot of mentally ill people self medicate with Herion which is a opiate. Heroins actual chemical name is dia ethyl morphine

That sounds like a terrible idea. My husband died from an opiate overdose after getting addicted because of a back injury. I don't know why anyone would even consider using opiates for bipolar treatment. I bet it WOULD reduce symptoms since it's a mind altering drug, but at what cost?

I'm sorry I'm just very passionate about opiate use and abuse after losing my husband to addiction. I would never touch the stuff. I don't care if it would help.

Yea I'm with you and very sorry about your husband. I also was an opaites addict. I would take 4x the dose of vicoden to get high and even though I haven't used them in 7 years I've never been the same.

My son became addicted to opiates and it almost killed him. The withdrawal was brutal and it made a wreck of his life. I would be very careful if you are considering this form of treatment.

I'm terrified of getting addicted to anything.

Mmmyeah I destroyed my life and almost died from opiates, so no thanks.

An opiate is a depressant.

No, thanks.

I've noticed after surgery twice that vicodin seemed to be a mood stabilizer for me. But I'd never, ever try to use it as such because it is too dangerous and there are way too many reasons not to consider it. I've joked about it with my pdoc that it figures that the one med that works isn't something we can use. It makes me afraid of taking pain pills because while I don't think I'd cross a line many others have thought that too just before crossing a line.

I do know that some forward thinking pdocs, have used ultram in such cases. It's an opiate derivative, which doesn't cause the euphoria that other opiates do and has a very low chance of addiction. They have been looking into other drugs, which act in a similar fashion. I'm not talking about heroin or other highly addictive opiates. However, I was curious if such a drug, which were used solely for the sake of treatment, would be beneficial. Especially, since they have such a marked improvement on bipolar as whole.
Many of us take benzodiazepines, which are just as a addictive (even more so than ultram), because the benefits outweigh the potential side effects.
Anyway, I was just curious. The 'Opiate Cure' was an interesting read, which posed a lot of questions. I wouldn't recommend self-medicating oneself. However, if I were prescribed it due to the fact it was a much more effective alternative to the other meds, which have their own serous side-effects, I may give it a shot.
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I've taken ultram. When I was addicted to opiates I went through a suboxen taper. To get off the suboxen, I took ultram. Even with the meds it was a long process. The cons outweigh any possible pros.
I also think benzos can be super dangerous and addictive.

I am being treated just fine with a mood stabilizer and anti-depressant.

Is they opiate cure for people that have tried every other option?

People get confused about what 'depressant' means. It's a depressant insofar as it depresses your breathing and heart rate, not in that it makes you depressed. That's not to say opiate addicts can't also be depressed, but that's not what it means to be a depressant as a class of drugs.

With that said, I don't think opiates are a good treatment option for bipolar due to their addictive nature, tolerance, the risk of overdose, and the tendency for people with bipolar to be impulsive. With THAT said, opiates have made me very happy in the past when I did them recreationally in college...but it never lasted.

I really have no idea. I don't think many pdocs are progressive enough to try this yet, but the book brings up some interesting points and discoveries...

"The Opiate Cure tells the stories of painful people whose mental illness were relieved when they were given opioids for their chronic pain. This improbable outcome has occurred in those with bipolar depression and mania, attention deficit disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), and narcolepsy. These several diseases are now linked together, constituting the bipolar spectrum. Linked also to bipolar spectrum is chronic pain in its many forms, including migraine. This book will clearly demonstrate that bipolar spectrum is uniquely responsive to opiate therapy. The Opiate Cure offers new insights and, more importantly, hope for those with acute and/or chronic pain."

I also noticed the same improvement, while being treated for severe pain at one point in my life. The problem is finding a drug where the patient doesn't develop a tolerance very quickly. Maybe sometime in the future. Who knows?
If anyone is curious about any case studies, take a look at the Author's website:
http://www.understandingpain.com/the-opiate-cure.html

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What makes a drug popular is that Big Pharma pushes their drug and it becomes mainstream. Look at Welbutrin...it was practically toted as a cure all. Big Pharma supplys all the studies and gives incentives to doctors for prescribing their drug. The new wonder drug always has its own 5 minute plug on TV every other commercial, you see it's name in every magazine, their name on every pen sign clock in doctors office...city buses, bulletin boards, web pages...

If a drug doesn't get an advertising campaign and go mainstream, it'll probably not get prescribed much.

I am well aware of what 'depressant' means. For me, opiates cause me to feel depressed.

I was addicted to ultram I called it Tremadol. It's suppose to have mild SSRI like effects. As I remember they kinda made me hyper more so then vicoden.

Anyway I've read the endorphin system is the first line of defense against stress when it's depleted the body uses serotonin then GABA. I wouldn't mind it being studied other then addiction and abuse it's pretty easy on the body.

I've abused opiates in the past as well and getting off was horrible not to mention how hard my mood tanked without them.

I don't think bipolar and opiates are a good mix tbh. It's trouble.

That sounds like it would do more harm than good.... Well, for me at least.

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Since its damn near impossible to get any doctor to prescribe an opiate to someone in physical pain due to DEA issues and the Doctors being threatened with loss of license a constant.

I certainly cant imagine it being given to someone with a mental issue that often has less that well thought out self care.