Treating opioid withdrawal using Gabatrol

One of the forum's members recently contacted me about his experience using a substance sold on the internet to treat the symptoms of opioid withdrawal. The substance is called 'Gabatrol'-- not related to the pharmaceutical medication Gabitril-- and can be found on the internet at the site www.gabatrol.com. The member was so excited about the product that he contacted the product's developer, and the two are now working together to promote the substance for this use.

I am looking for information about peoples' experiences using this product. The well-known author of the well-known (and frequently joked about) book, men are from mars and women are from Venus, weighs in positively about the use of this product for treating anxiety and muscle tension.

Is this a magic bullet? who knows. But I would like to hear about the experiences that others have had. If you are about to taper off buprenorphine, or have a different reason to go through withdrawal, consider trying it out; if you write to me I can get you a discount code of up to 50%. I DO NOT RECEIVE ANY COMPENSATION FOR PROMOTING THIS PRODUCT, or for anything else related to the product... although if it works as well as this guy claims, I am going to do what I can to ride along!

For the discound code, either post here or better yet send me a personal e-mail, thorugh my fdlpsychiatry web site. And please post your comments about the product, good or bad, in this thread.

Thanks!

Very interesting. thanks for the info!
_________________
Laura

Of course there's such a thing as angels. Only sometimes they don't have wings... and we call them mothers. -Unknown

Perhaps I can shed a little light on this stuff. It is a more bioavailable form of GABA ( gamma amino butyric acid ), an amino acid that is well known to bodybuilders. One of its effects is to stimulate the pituitary gland to produce growth hormone. This 'more active' version is also marketed by a company called ERGOPHARM, a well known sports nutrition/supplement company, and can be found in most workout shops e.g. GNC under the name of GABAx3 . It's pretty expensive stuff , so if you're gonna try it I would suggest taking up Dr Junig's offer. BTW the pharmaceutical name of this compound is PHENIBUT, and some doctors prescribe it for cases of anxiety.
Back in my training days I would take the old weaker version, which is also supposed to promote deeper sleep. Didn't notice much in the way of extra muscle, but there was a noticeable 'buzz' about 10 minutes after taking the dose.
Hope this info is of some help.

Here's a tip from someone who's been there: Don't confuse GABA with Phenibut. To make a long story short, make sure it says Beta-phenyl-gamma-aminobutyric acid on the label, not gamma amino butyric acid.

There's a lot of confusion about GABA and Phenibut, because Phenibut is a derivative of GABA. However, GABA does not cross the BBB, Phenibut does, so it's very effective as a mild sedative and muscle relaxer.

I don't want to jump in and step on toes as a new guy, but I don't want people running out to GNC and buying GABA either, because they're wasting their money - unless they have other uses in mind, and that's for another thread. There just tends to be a lot of confusion about the two products because they're so closely related, but one's a dud.

I'm sure the product mentioned has Phenibut, otherwise it would not get the rave reviews, but if you're going to do it yourself, just remember you want Beta-phenyl-gamma-aminobutyric acid on the label (Write it down).

Good Luck!
J
_________________
"Never send a rhesus monkey to do a man’s job"

Interesting! Thanks for all of the information you guys. I am new to this site. Good luck with you all.
_________________

I would love the discount code for this product. I'll honestly try anything now as I try to helplessly help my beloved daughter suffer through withdrawals. Thank you.

To J_Ramone:

I'll look into phenibut.

GHB is 4-hydroxybutanoic acid

GABA is γ-Aminobutyric acid

They are not the same thing. GHB is illegal, not to mention dangerous. I could see how the chemical names sound kind of similar, but they are not the same thing.
_________________
You can't stop the waves, but you can learn to surf.

-Jack Kornfield

No, GHB is definitely not the same as GABA or Phenibut. I bought some GHB from a sex shop in the west end of London about 13 years ago just to see what all the hype was about. It came in a small brown glass bottle with a smudged label on the side stating the dosage in capfuls per 10kg of bodyweight. It tasted like salt water, and at first I thought I had been ripped off, but after about 30 minutes, I got an indescribable feeling of warmth and intoxication, totally unlike anything I had tried before. I really enjoyed the buzz for about 2 hours, then the vomiting started. I honestly thought my entire colon was going to make an appearance from my mouth. I brought up about half a pint of pure undiluted bile....this was one scary experience and I feared that my liver was permanently damaged. I never tried it again, and it was outlawed in the UK about 2 weeks later,so whatever you do....DON'T TAKE GHB!!!!
GABA on the other hand seems to be perfectly safe at the recommended dose, and I'm sure that Gabatrol is beneficial too, if taken responsibly.
_________________
They say you can't take it with you....well, if I can't take it with me I AIN'T GOING!

Dr. Junig,

what is the purpose of Gabatrol when we have subutex?

Is it meant to replace subutex, and if so, why make the switch?

It is interesting that GABA-ergic drugs are useful in detox from opiates. Obviously, benzos help with the withdrawal symptoms like RLS and anxiety, etc, but they are habit forming etc. At various detoxes, I've been given mostly (1) benzos (2) anti-psychotics (Seroquel, Zyprexa, etc) (3) opiates (buprenorphine, etc) to help with withdrawal. But when I've detoxed myself (dozens of times), the best drug for me was pregabalin (Lyrica by Pfizer). Apparently, it can be abused but I've never found it very interesting in that respect. It not only relieves anxiety, promotes sleep, helps with RLS, etc, but it also increases energy levels and helps with fatigue so you can function. I think detoxes/rehabs should give pregabalin serious consideration. There have been some recent studies that say it is as effective as benzos for anxiety/sleep and not nearly as addictive (no withdrawal to speak of, but some people do start to like it a bit too much I've heard - never been a problem for me).

It works in a similar way to Gabatrol and other drugs mentioned here, except that it does pass the blood brain barrier and actually hits you quite hard when you first start taking it. But the side effects of dizziness and sleepiness (which are kinda nice when you're kicking) wear off quickly and it leaves you more alert, less depressed, less anxious and you sleep like a baby. At least in my study with N=1. [Pregabalin IS a controlled substance - but schedule V - one step down from benzos and three steps down from strong opiates)

If I were running a detox, I would definitely put patients on a decent (900mg/day) dose of pregabalin, at least while they're at the detox/rehab and maybe for a few weeks afterwards.

DSC

PS) While I'm opining on detox methodologies, I will say that the most painless detox for me was to just scale down the strength of the opiates gradually. Say you're taking 1gram+ oxycodone daily with booster shots of hydromorphone PRN. Detoxing straight from that is going to be awful. Why not substitute lots of hydrocodone first? The switch to hydrocodone is relatively painless (the pharmacy can order pure hydrocodone for you if your doc insists on it so you don't have to take all that nasty acetaminophen) for a week or two, then taper that a bit, and then just dump the hydrocodone and do 2 mildly miserable days of detox (with tons of benzos and pregabalin) instead of 8-10 days of awful psycho-physical pain coming off the massive doses of oxycodone/hydromorphone. Take this logic further, you could even then switch from hydrocodone to codeine or something really weak, and then come off that. Why are there no studies on this stuff? Why don't detoxes experiment to see what is the most painless way to bring addicts off dope? What's so special about buprenorphine for detox? [I'm guessing it's legal issues, which is really silly IMHO. That means you're better off detoxing yourself with the right opiates rather than being limited by what a hospital setting can provide. That's just perverse, because I think many addicts don't try to get clean because they're so afraid of the detox!]

PPS) Of Course, the hard part is not the detox (although it is PAINFUL) - the hard part is staying clean post-detox. Although when you are actually detoxing, it sure feels HARD but at least you know the torture will end EVENTUALLY. Staying clean is permanent torture, although the cravings do go away gradually. (I am coming up on one year; for me just meetings, no meds). I can't believe it. I never thought I would be able to get through a day without opiates, much less a year.