Comments on: The Chattering Brain – How Chronic Pain Throws our Cortex out of Sync http://brainblogger.com/2008/02/26/the-chattering-brain-how-chronic-pain-throws-our-cortex-out-of-sync/ Topics from multidimensional biopsychosocial perspectives Tue, 22 May 2012 11:07:03 +0000 hourly 1 By: Sudip Ghosh, MDhttp://brainblogger.com/2008/02/26/the-chattering-brain-how-chronic-pain-throws-our-cortex-out-of-sync/#comment-97960 Sudip Ghosh, MD Fri, 07 Mar 2008 03:23:09 +0000 http://brainblogger.com/2008/02/26/the-chattering-brain-how-chronic-pain-throws-our-cortex-out-of-sync/#comment-97960 Tramadol can cause sleep apnea only in a handful -- one paper estimates it to be 3%.<strong>Reference</strong><span class="Z3988" title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.aulast=Webster&rft.aufirst=Lynn&rft.aumiddle=R&rft.au=Lynn+ Webster&rft.au=Youngmi++Choi&rft.au=Himanshu++Desai&rft.au=Linda++Webster&rft.au=Brydon+J+Grant&rft.title=Pain+Medicine&rft.atitle=Sleep-Disordered+Breathing+and+Chronic+Opioid+Therapy&rft.date=2007&rft.volume=0&rft.issue=0&rft.spage=070730134920005&rft.epage=%3F%3F%3F&rft.genre=article&rft.id=info:DOI/10.1111%2Fj.1526-4637.2007.00343.x"></span>Webster, L.R., Choi, Y., Desai, H., Webster, L., Grant, B.J. (2007). Sleep-Disordered Breathing and Chronic Opioid Therapy. <span style="font-style: italic;">Pain Medicine</span> DOI: <a rev="review" href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1526-4637.2007.00343.x/abstract;jsessionid=0D317EDEE2015135E346E38F705ECE4E.d03t04" rel="nofollow">10.1111/j.1526-4637.2007.00343.x</a> Tramadol can cause sleep apnea only in a handful — one paper estimates it to be 3%.

Reference

Webster, L.R., Choi, Y., Desai, H., Webster, L., Grant, B.J. (2007). Sleep-Disordered Breathing and Chronic Opioid Therapy. Pain Medicine DOI: 10.1111/j.1526-4637.2007.00343.x

]]> By: Wenchypoohttp://brainblogger.com/2008/02/26/the-chattering-brain-how-chronic-pain-throws-our-cortex-out-of-sync/#comment-93095 Wenchypoo Wed, 27 Feb 2008 03:52:18 +0000 http://brainblogger.com/2008/02/26/the-chattering-brain-how-chronic-pain-throws-our-cortex-out-of-sync/#comment-93095 My husband suffers from chronic pain in his ankle--he fell down a steep stairwell on a ship, and broke his leg in two places trying to stop himself (by sticking his foot through the side rails). As a result, he lost cartilage in his right ankle, and now has permanent damage, permanent pain, and arthritis in a very tiny bone in the center of his foot (not remedied by any standard treatments). He asked the doctor for something to allow him to sleep at night, and got Tramadol--a few years later, he now has sleep apnea and snores like all get-out.The doctor says it's because he gained weight, but since he's losing weight, I think the Tramadol (an epilepsy drug used to trick the brain into misinterpreting pain) has affected his brain somehow, and his sleep patterns are forever altered. When he started the Tramadol, the first bottle he got carried a warning about breathing problems, but all subsequent bottles carried none--I brought this up to his latest doctor, and he denied the drug has that side effect. Looking it up on the web, I couldn't find anything either, but I wonder that since he ISN'T an epileptic, and this medication is frequently used off-label for chronic pain, could there be something the docs are missing?We go in for a sleep study next month. Maybe that'll shed some light on this. My husband suffers from chronic pain in his ankle–he fell down a steep stairwell on a ship, and broke his leg in two places trying to stop himself (by sticking his foot through the side rails). As a result, he lost cartilage in his right ankle, and now has permanent damage, permanent pain, and arthritis in a very tiny bone in the center of his foot (not remedied by any standard treatments). He asked the doctor for something to allow him to sleep at night, and got Tramadol–a few years later, he now has sleep apnea and snores like all get-out.

The doctor says it’s because he gained weight, but since he’s losing weight, I think the Tramadol (an epilepsy drug used to trick the brain into misinterpreting pain) has affected his brain somehow, and his sleep patterns are forever altered. When he started the Tramadol, the first bottle he got carried a warning about breathing problems, but all subsequent bottles carried none–I brought this up to his latest doctor, and he denied the drug has that side effect. Looking it up on the web, I couldn’t find anything either, but I wonder that since he ISN’T an epileptic, and this medication is frequently used off-label for chronic pain, could there be something the docs are missing?

We go in for a sleep study next month. Maybe that’ll shed some light on this.

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