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1454997 tn?1285868473

Itching

My doctor prescribed me Naltrexone for itching and it gave me confusion, hallucinations (I thought there was a lizard on my boyfriends back) and I couldn't sleep and my itching was worse.  It says you shouldn't take it if you have a liver condition.  I have stage 4 cirrhosis.  But my liver doctor prescribed it so I thought it was okay to take.  Has anyone used this medicine?  What else could I do for the itching.
Belle64
5 Responses
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1454997 tn?1285868473
Hi, thank you for your information.  When I say I was up for a transplant, 18months ago they gave me 3 months to live if I didn't receive a transplant.  While my doctors were doing their thing they do to get me on the list, I started getting better.  My bilirubin came down from 30 to 6, my liver enzyme levels dropped (I don't know the numbers, but they are still elevated), my viral load dropped from over a million to 345,000.  I also started to walk again.  I was wheelchair bound before.  So, the doctors thought they should hold off and see if I get worse again.
My daughters say I have new angels around me and that is why I got better.  My ammonia levels are still around 100, my last viral count was 123,000 and my bilirubin ranges from 3-5.  The doctor is not throwing out the possibility of a liver transplant since the biopsy showed stage 4 liver cirrhosis.  He is now more concerned with the cirrhosis than the HCV.
As for my itching, I completely stopped taking the medication and I going to try again with the lotions and creams.
Thanks for your response, next time I'll start a new post.
belle64
Helpful - 0
338734 tn?1377160168
A lot of medications have warnings about taking them if you have liver problems. Sometimes this is because the drug can further compromise your remaining liver function. Sometimes it is because an inefficient liver will keep the drug active in your system too long. Your doctor can sort this out and make dosage adjustments to many medications that would be appropriate and safe (relatively) for you even though they have cautions about liver disease.

I think your doctor is right about the options for a patient with genotype 1. The success rate for treatment of this using present treatments is around 50%. Some new drugs that you will hear about, if you haven't already, are looking like they will be approved for use soon. These are Telaprevir and Bocepravir, and they are getting comparative results of success around 80% or 90%. I'm sorry I don't know more exact or accurate fugures offhand.

When you say you have been "up for a transplant" previously, I am not sure I understand. Were you actually listed for transplant at a transplant center? If you still have the option of treatment without transplant, that is a great thing in my opinion.

A transplant won't cure hep c. Even after a transplant you will have to treat the hep c. This is more difficult because you will be on immunosupressant drugs and the chances of success with any treatment, current or new, would likely be less than for the groups for wich the test statistics were derived. In addition, there is new evidence that the virus cells that overcome the immune system after liver transplant are a more robust strain and more resistant to treatment than the original ones.
Helpful - 0
1454997 tn?1285868473
First of all I aappreciate you both responding to my concern.  I'm new at this web site so I wasn't sure I was posting correctly.  My itching is all over, mostly at night.  If I start scratching it just makes it worse, I have a small rash on my back.  And, I've never used heroine and have not drank since i was diagnosed 2 years ago.

Is atarax bad for your liver?  I'll look up the reference you gave me.

The medications I'm on now are xifaxin, lactulose, spironolactone, furosemide, calcitriol, ursidiol, omeprazole, multivitamin, omega-3, and zinc.  Oh, and cipro one tablet a week.

My doctor doesn't want to put me on interferon because I'm genotype 1a and he thinks the new medicines about to be approved by the FDA would be better.  I guess he want to keep me as a naive responder when I do take them.

I was up for a transplant 18 month ago, but I improved and my viral count is about 300,000.

Thanks
belle64

Helpful - 0
87972 tn?1322661239
You might ask your doctor about the antihistamine ‘atarax’ (hydroxyzine); I’ve never had any personal experience with it, but I’ve talked to others that say it worked relatively well.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0000796

Good luck—

--Bill

Helpful - 0
179856 tn?1333547362
Well it is also given to treat heroine dependency and alcholism.  If you do not have either of these problems I would imagine it could really affect the receptors in your brain in a major way.  But I"ve never heard of anyone taking it for itching as far as i can remember.

Are you on treatment? What kind of itching are you talking about?

I am not a fan of LDN at all but there are proponents of it that believe in it. If it says not to take it with liver damage I can't imagine taking it with cirrhosis so I agree with you there.
Helpful - 0
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