DOSE:	5 g	oral	Kratom	(daily)
	50 mg	oral	Naltrexone
		IV	Benzodiazepines

BODY WEIGHT:

130 lb

ICU Due to Naltrexone - Long Term Use Kratom

I was hospitalized for alcoholic acidosis after a brief (but severe) alcohol relapse. While I was in the hospital, I was given 50 mg Naltrexone along with a high dose of benzos to curb the withdrawal. When I was released 4 days later, I was prescribed 50mg Naltrexone daily, and continued to take it for 30 days while taking about 5 grams of Kratom powder and washing it down with juice before bed. I have taken Kratom almost daily for over 10 years, and I have never had any withdrawal if I went without it.

The Naltrexone script did not have refills, so I discontinued for two months. I asked my PCP if he would prescribe Naltrexone again because I did not have any desire to drink while I was taking it. He prescribed me the same dose I was given from the hospital.

Within 20-30 minutes of taking my first 50mg pill, I had a terrible urge to go to the bathroom. It was not a ‘cramp’, but an ‘urge’. As I sat on the toilet, I started to sweat and have that uncomfortable, sweaty, goosebump feeling like one might get in the middle of vomiting. After about 50 minutes I started uncontrollable flexing of every muscle in my body. It was not a seizure like flex, but more of an urge that was uncontrollable. My ears rang and I had a prickly tingling feeling in my skin – almost like it would be a ‘body buzz’ but without any enjoyment.

After about 1 hour, I can only explain this as the worst feeling I have ever had in my entire life. It felt like every bad thing my body has ever experienced was feeling it all at once. I was soaking wet in sweat, yet completely freezing to the point I felt hypothermic. I was anxious, restless, angry, hopeless, and my thoughts flashed so quickly I could not speak a sentence. I took off all my clothes and turned my home heat to 85 degrees, then made a hut against the heater with blankets. I could not sit still enough to stay there as my body had to flail and move. I started to release these audible grunts of pure aggravation that were far beyond any control I had. Nothing I did would help. I called my doctor and could not vocalize what was happening in between my body seizing and my rage screams and called my husband to take me to the E.R. I was terrified to leave, my clothes hurt, and I was not able to verbalize my thoughts. Different parts of my body continued to stiffen, and I would yawn and releasing the most frustrated sounding screams that I had absolutely no control over.

At the E.R, I knew I looked like one of those people on ‘zombie drugs’ that you might see in viral videos. I was flailing my body around, screaming and ticking like I was possessed. The staff immediately thought I was overdosing on a street drug – asking me over and over and treating me like I was a junkie. They did not believe this was from Naltrexone. I was strapped to the bed and given IV benzos which stopped everything.

My bloodwork came back and clearly showed I had NO drugs or alcohol in my system, so they decided to label my visit as “alcohol withdrawal’ since I had a history of alcoholism. I had not had a drink in over 3 months. I was in the ICU for four days. Once home, every muscle in my body hurt like I had been in a marathon. I was unable to sit up or stand up because the muscles in my abdomen and legs were so overworked and depleted due to the spasms. It has been almost 60 days since this experience, and I still have a ‘panic-response’ when I have an uncontrollable stretch, and I have been extremely depressed with frequent negative thoughts.

I did not think Kratom had anything to do with this event until I started researching why that happened to me. I read about “Orin” and the experience he wrote about (Erowid.org/exp/39974, "Rapid Withdrawal Experiment"). I am 100% sure what happened to me now.

When I was originally hospitalized and first took Naltrexone, I was also in and out of consciousness and given very high doses of Benzos. I was already taking Naltrexone for 3 days and had intermittently taken my Kratom before I was released from the hospital. I continued to take the 50mg Naltrexone as well as my usual mouthful of Kratom before bed through the 30-day script. After stopping Naltrexone after for over 2 months and introducing it to my body without benzos and being 100% conscious, it caused psychomotor agitation and mirrored opiate withdrawal multiplied by 10.

I hope Kratom becomes more known so this interaction can be shared. My hospital records will never report this experience because Kratom is so unknown to the medical field. This was truly the worst experience I have had physically from any drug.

Exp Year: 2022	ExpID: 116269
Gender: Female
Age at time of experience: 43
Published: Apr 3, 2022	Views: 2,428
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Kratom (203), Naltrexone (338) : Combinations (3), Retrospective / Summary (11), Health Problems (27), Hospital (36)