Opium Patch Pain Relief

Cancer pain: Relief is possible. Learn what causes cancer pain and how you can work with your doctor to ensure your cancer pain is controlled. By Mayo Clinic Staff.

What Are the Strongest Pain Killers.. Modern medicine has made vast improvements in the field of pain management. There are now strong pain medications for the.

An analgesic or painkiller is any member of the group of drugs used to achieve analgesia, relief from pain. Analgesic drugs act in various ways on the peripheral and.

Sufferers of chronic pain and the government s war on OxyContin. Our understanding of severe pain is inadequate.

I m as addicted to pain medication as junkies are to heroin, said Bob Rees

Bob Rees felt a wave of panic on an overnight work trip when he realised he d left his painkillers for his crippling back condition at home.

I lay awake all night with stabbing pains and started to experience hot and cold sweats, says Bob, 53.

I felt as if I was coming down with flu, but I realised I was having full-blown cold turkey drug withdrawal symptoms. It was scary.

When he got back home and took his medication, not only did the back pain go, but his mood dramatically improved, too.

I felt totally relaxed, as if I was floating on a cloud above my pain.

Bob, a former sales director, who lives with his wife Jean, 45, and their two daughters near Pontypridd, is addicted to the patches prescribed by his doctor to alleviate his back pain.

The patches, which contain the drug fentanyl and are applied to his arm every two days, release opioid painkillers through the skin.

They have taken over my life. I m constantly watching the clock to check when I can have my next dose, he says.

I don t look like a drug addict. I am respectable and the drugs I take are legal and prescribed.

But I m as addicted to pain medication as junkies are to heroin. And I m too scared to come off them.

Opioid drugs are related to opium, an extract of poppy seed cases, and act directly on the central nervous system.

Apart from relieving pain, they induce a state of relaxation and euphoria, which can alleviate the stress associated with severe pain.

The problem is the body quickly develops tolerance to the drugs, which means you need higher doses more frequently for it to have an effect, and addiction can develop.

Common prescription opioids include tramadol, morphine, oxycontin and fentanyl.

It s thought thousands of those who have been prescribed opioids for pain have ended up addicted.

Bob s experience is typical, says Dr Arun Ghosh, a Liverpool GP who specialises in addiction.

Bob s problems started after he underwent back surgery for crumbling vertebrae in 2002

It s not just prescription drugs that may cause problems, he says.

One of my patients, a high-flying academic, bought over-the-counter co-codamol which contains codeine for migraine. His dosage escalated to 17 tablets a day over a four-year period.

First, he took it for migraine, then he took it to prevent migraine, then because it made him feel good it is easily done.

This is the classic painkiller addict story: someone who starts taking medication for chronic pain and then finds their body develops a tolerance to it, so they have to keep increasing their dose to get the same effect.

A lot of people don t realise  they have an addiction. They are carrying on as usual at work and looking after their families.

They assume because these drugs are prescribed legally and in some cases can even be bought from the supermarket or chemist they can t do them any harm.

Prescriptions for potentially addictive opioid drugs have risen sharply from eight million in 2002 to more than 19 million in 2011, according to the NHS Information Services. Prescriptions for tramadol have risen three-fold.

The rise is partly due to a more limited choice of pain-killing drugs following research that highlighted the side-effects of long-term use of some anti-inflammatory drugs including Vioxx, says Dr Martin Johnson, a pain expert from the Royal College Of General Practitioners.

Used appropriately at the correct dosage and with monitoring, opioids are perfectly safe.

The danger starts when patients start exceeding their dosage or are put on high doses long-term, he says.

They the patches have taken over my life. I m constantly watching the clock to check when I can have my next dose, said Bob

In the past, opioids were given only for short-term palliative care for cancer patients or as pain relief after surgery or a heart attack, says Dr Roger Knaggs, associate professor of pharmacy at the University of Nottingham and a council member of the British Pain Society.

These days, they are being used for longer-term conditions including chronic back pain, nerve pain and osteoarthritis. And the longer they are used, the more likely addiction will follow.

However, there is a lack of evidence they are effective in the longer term most of the trial data is for only three or four months of use.

Opioids don t just bring a risk of addiction. Side-effects can include nausea, vomiting, dizziness and drowsiness when starting or increasing a dose, and severe constipation.

There is emerging evidence that long-term use reduces testosterone levels in men, leading to low mood and erectile dysfunction, and low levels of oestrogen in women, causing menopausal symptoms.

GPs and pharmacists are not emphasising to patients how potent opioids can be and that dosage guidelines must be followed strictly, says Dr Knaggs.

The problem of painkiller addiction isn t just restricted to prescription-only drugs.

David Grieve, spokesman for the charity Over Count, says most calls to the organisation are about codeine-based drugs bought in chemists.

Typically, patients are taking too many Nurofen Plus ibuprofen and codeine, Solpadeine codeine, paracetamol and caffeine and generic co-codamol paracetamol and codeine.

On average, these people are taking 22 tablets a day, he says.

Most have no idea it is possible to become addicted to painkillers or that drugs readily available in packs of 32 tablets are so potent.

Many addicts such as Bob start taking the drugs for a genuine condition, but find they then can t function without their fix.

Bob s problems started after he underwent back surgery for crumbling vertebrae in 2002.

He had a titanium cage inserted into his spine after a bone snapped but later the bones supporting the cage started to disintegrate due to osteoporosis.

He also suffered nerve damage as a result of the surgery.

I was in agony all I could think about was finding ways to block out the pain, he says.

At first, I was prescribed the anti-inflammatory diclofenac and the antidepressant amitryptiline for nerve pain, but within a few months I needed higher doses.

For four years he took tramadol, then a similar drug oxycontin and now fentanyl patches, supplemented by gabapentin.

He is rationed to six top-up fentanyl lozenges a month for when the pain is intense.

Until recently he would also take Solpadeine two or three times a week.

When I started going to my GP about the pain, I d had to fight to get more pain relief and convince him I need it.

But these days he is happy to write a prescription for a higher dose he hasn t got any alternatives.

Sometimes I feel totally spaced out and in a trance. I can t work I had to give up in 2003.

My eyes burn through tiredness and I suffer constipation, severe urinary retention and drowsiness after I apply a patch.

My skin itches, too, and I haven t been able to sleep more than two hours at a time for ten years.

My wife and daughters worry about my painkiller use because it affects my mood they have to walk on eggshells half the time.

The Royal College Of GPs and the British Pain Society are drawing up guidelines for prescribers of opioids to highlight the importance of appropriate prescribing and monitoring.

We re trying to stop the escalation of inappropriate opioid drug use, says Dr Johnson.

There should be more emphasis on self-management techniques.

Often someone with back pain doesn t just need a painkiller, but stretching exercises and psychological approaches to pain management.

Patients also need to be weaned off the drugs.

Coming off high-dose co-codamol can have the same effects as coming off morphine, says Dr Ghosh.

Withdrawal symptoms can include shivers, headaches, mood disturbance and sleep deprivation.

If you ve been on high doses for several years, it can take a long time to withdraw.

Despite all his health problems associated with opioids, Bob Rees admits that if he was offered more pain relief, he d take it.

I m concerned about the risk of accidental overdose, but when you re desperate for pain relief you forget the dosage rules.

But what worries me most is that I will run out of pain-relief options. What will happen when even the highest-dose opioids don t work on me any more. Where will I turn.

I would love to come off these drugs, but the truth is that I m just too scared to try.

Fentanyl transdermal patch Durogesic/Duragesic/Matrifen is used in chronic pain management. The patches work by slowly releasing fentanyl through the skin into the.

Objective 3: Know the pharmacology relevant to choosing an opioid for pain treatment in terminally ill patients. A. WHO Ladder Approach B. Nonopioid.

Opium Made Easy By Michael Pollan Harper s Magazine, April 1, 1997. Last season was a strange one in my garden, notable not only for the unseasonably cool and wet.

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When you have a mild headache or muscle ache, an over-the-counter pain reliever is usually enough to make you feel better. But if your pain is more severe, your.

ActiPatch 720 hour Back Pain Relief - Boots

Futura Medical has developed a new generation of topical pain relief with two products that target more active ingredients directly to the point of pain.