Naltrexone is a commercially available medication commonly used to treat opioid and alcohol abuse disorders. However, in recent years, its use has expanded to include the treatment of pain for chronic pain syndromes. Using extremely small amounts of naltrexone can diminish pain, increase your energy, and improve your mood.

Have you heard about low dose naltrexone (LDN)? There have been many reports about how it may help you reduce or eliminate pain. It is true but it’s not simple. The challenge is to find what dose will work for you. Most studies have used 4.5 mg as a daily dose for persistent pain. It turns out that many patients do not respond to this dose but may respond to a higher or lower dose. This interesting finding is based on two unique aspects of LDN described by two, for many readers, unique words: Idiosyncratic dosing and hormesis.

Idiosyncratic dosing refers to the finding that each person using LDN for chronic pain has a different effective dose. In other words, one size does not fit all. There is no way to know before you use LDN what your effective dose will be; one way to find out is to slowly increase from a very low dose using small additions and stopping the increase when you feel a decrease in pain and/or an elevation in mood.

Hormesis refers to the unusual quality of a chemical to be effective at a low dose and ineffective or having the opposite effect at a higher dose. LDN is a hormetic drug. If you are slowly increasing the dose and notice that after feeling some improvement, you feel no different or worse with a higher dose, you should go back to the last effective dose and that is your maximally effective dose.

If you want to read a study that explains the mechanisms of LDN and dosing go to:
Https://www.dovepress.com/articles.php?article_id=91439