Restless Legs Syndrome (RLS) Discussion Board

Has anyone else noticed that opoids + Tylenol (Percocet, for instance) are less effective than opoids alone? For me, also, more than 3 doses of Tylenol in succession can aggravate symptoms; same is true for any other OTC pain meds! Especially bothersome were the older versions of sleep aids containing Tylenol; have not tried any in years, so not sure if formulas have changed. Maybe my body just has a strange reaction to these meds, period, but thought I'd mention this to the group to see if anyone else gets the same results. Most info on OTCs do not caution against Tylenol and RLS.

Jane in GA

Jane, I've never used any of the ones with Tylenol in them. Interesting....I've never seen anything about Tylenol, either.

Are any of these generic? That could be part of the difference....

Tylenol is paracetamol. Percocet contains paracetamol. My recommendation is to always use a pure opioid to avoid side effects from the other pain medication since they have no use for RLS.

Also the additional pain med limits the amount of Percocet you can take. Adding a 2nd pain med like paracetamol might also decrease the potential for abuse because life threathing symptoms can develop if you take a certain amount of paracetamol.

Let me start by saying: I am weird. My body is weird.

I was taking percocet (combo of opioid with tylenol) 10-15 mg per day. My doc wanted me to try straight extended release oxycodone 10 mg (which I think has the terribly misaligned name oxycontin, so people think you are serious snorting/shooting addict lol) with 5 mg percocet as needed. I tried it and it backfired for me. I had terrible nausea, constipation, and fatigue. After a month, I switched back to Percocet and the nausea, constipation, and fatigue disappeared.

I would stay far far far away from any OTC sleep meds. Anything that has antihistamine in it (benedryl, tylenol PM, etc) is a pretty well-known aggravator of WED/RLS

Yes, antihistamines suck. I was taking them for years before I knew about my RLS. Every night it was a nightmare to fall asleep.

Be careful not to write off all antihistamines. It is the first generation ones that cause the problems. The second generation antihistamines do not cross the blood brain barrier and so are less likely to cause WED problems. The second generation products are the non-sedating antihistamines and are sold under the tradenames of Claratin, Allegra and Zyrtec.

But still take careful note. Claratin messes with me so I have to decide which is worse, allergies or aggravated RLS. It took several weeks and a really good doc to figure that one out. I was popping a claratin every day without giving it any consideration...thought I was augmenting on opioids (because, of course, I would be the one person in the world to do that lol). It was the Claratin.

Good luck Jane!

glfngrl wrote:Has anyone else noticed that opoids + Tylenol (Percocet, for instance) are less effective than opoids alone? For me, also, more than 3 doses of Tylenol in succession can aggravate symptoms; same is true for any other OTC pain meds! Especially bothersome were the older versions of sleep aids containing Tylenol; have not tried any in years, so not sure if formulas have changed. Maybe my body just has a strange reaction to these meds, period, but thought I'd mention this to the group to see if anyone else gets the same results. Most info on OTCs do not caution against Tylenol and RLS.

Jane in GA

Don't know about effectiveness, but Vicodin is available with ibuprofen instead of Tylenol. Oxycodone is available without either. You could try talking to you doc about this issue. Hope you can figure it out.