Has anyone heard that strong (i.e., prescription) pain medications interact badly with anti-depressants?

Not off the top of my head, but if you can give me the names of the drugs in question, I can look stuff up.

It's not for me, it's a friend of mine. She's got a pinched nerve that's making her miserable, and the prescription is rest, physio, and Advil. When I told her not to be afraid to push for stronger pain meds, she said the doctor told her that they react badly with ADs. I'm pretty sure she's on at least Wellbutrin.

In a little googling, I found one study that showed evidence that pain meds *including* OTC meds could lower the effectiveness of ADs. But it's not like being in constant pain and unable to sleep is going to improve her mood either.

the doctor told her that they react badly with ADs. I'm pretty sure she's on at least Wellbutrin.

Yeah, no. I took percocet (and probably Tylenol 3 and oxycodone [not all at the same time, to be clear]) while I was on antidepressants. Reduced efficacy of ADs (or reduced efficacy of opiates, if that's a possibility) is not the same thing as "reacting badly" and her doctor is full of shit if he thinks that. (Now, if he just doesn't like to prescribe pain meds for serious pain because he's a jackass who doesn't take pain management seriously, that's a whole other story.)

(Not that I'm advocating making a party mix of pills and taking huge handfuls t hides Benadryl or anything. Just -- lots and lots of people take ADs and opiates, and they don't "react badly." Statistically, we'd know if they did. Opiates will fuck you up if you mix them with booze or benzos, and you have to be judicious with flexiril, but antidepressants are NBD.)

You know, for a pinched nerve, Flexiril would be better anyway. If you can get the muscle to chill the fuck out, it will stop pinching the nerve so badly. But pain meds might be called for, too, because nerve pain is awful.

Thanks. I just can't see how it's good for her to keep hurting. It was diagnosed as tendinitis initially, so it's been hurting her for a while. And I'm really sensitive to the idea of someone being in pain when they don't have to, as I'm sure we all are.

(Hey, why is it spelled tendInitis when the word is tendOn? That's weird.)

She just came back and said the pharmacy warned her about serotonin syndrome. Is that something opiates would contribute to?

Valium was prescribed alongside Hubby's heavy duty pain drugs, because his pain doc knew how wearing constant, intractable pain was.

Tramadol would be the most likely to cause serotonin syndrome, with SSRIs. With other opiates and other ADs, the risk really falls in the category of "hey, if these symptoms happen, STOP TAKING THE DRUGS and call your doctor." Which is to say, it *could* occur, just like the way they warn you about the scary allergic reaction where all your skin wants to fall off, but it's SUPER unlikely.

Thanks. I've passed all of this on to her.

Now I'm off to urgent care to get a shot of Toradol for a migraine. Ha.