Need info on chronic fatigue caused by a chronic pain condition.

It definitely can be your meds Mark and and after years of opiate use some people just run down on them. They continue to build up and eventually change your entire body chemistry and cause all sorts of things to be unbalanced. If you have had blood work and a good work up and nothing else is found to be contributing to the chronic fatigue your Dr can prescribe provigil or one of the other meds used to treat cf associated with opiate therapy and yes they actually make meds specifically for this so you understand its a real problem that exists for many and now you know your not alone! Its not as common as it was a few years ago and that's due to the decrease in amounts of opiates drs are prescribing these days. Fent is one of those that does seem to be more apt to cause issues,methadone,oxycontin are the two runners up. Definitely need to talk to your Dr about it. Another thing is if your reluctant to add another pill to the mix you can try increasing your B12 intake and eating more healthy including more B vitamins and adding a B12 supplement will help but its not a instant fix although some show a good increase in energy levels after a few days. It's cheaper and healthier than meds and your local health food store as well as the bigger chain drugstores that carry a good supply of vits and supplements will have the best B12 supplement,most prefer the sublingual or bucal melt pills as they don't lose anything in digestion and your getting the whole lot of it. Worth a try between the time it can take to see the Dr. You can talk to the person at the health food store to make sure the dose recommended is sufficient and going to cause any kind of issues with any other meds you may be on.

Good luck

I was dealing with exactly that for the past few years, then started taking DHEA a few months ago. 50mg per day. After 2 or 3 days, my energy started to improve. Within a week, I was feeling great .... and still am.

I also take:
Mega vitamin, co q10, b complex, d, fish oil.

In the past, I noticed some improvement with the above, but the DHEA makes a huge difference. I'm also now comfortably warm, vs. being cold all the time... DHEA is suppose to be "thermagenic" , and feeling warm like this also helps reduce my pain levels.


The only negative has been getting too warm as I'm a "hot sleeper " and so sometimes need to turn on the ac in the middle of the night.


If you try it, let me know if it works for you too.