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Coroner investigates high-risk painkiller

ANDRÉ PICARD

From Wednesday's Globe and Mail

Latest comment posted at 1:16 AM EDT 08/09/07

Fentanyl patches have grown in popularity among chronic pain sufferers despite repeated warnings from health regulators ...Read the full article

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  1. bruce desjardins from Windsor, Canada writes: When the time for patients to change their patch, drug addicts will buy the old one from them, to suck the ramaining Fentanyl out of the used patch. Investigate that.
  2. Devil Bud from Toronto, Canada writes: Bruce: Investigate what? That there are people out there who are addicted to prescription medication? Addicted to other narcotics? I don't understand how a story about the dangers of a certain pain medication causes you to worry about "drug addicts". Maybe those people are addicted to such drugs because their doctors have been negligent in their prescribing. Investigate that....
  3. Alistair McLaughlin from Ottawa, Canada writes: Bruce, prescription drugs of all kinds are abused. Why should this patch merit any special attention?
  4. Dennis sinneD. from Calgary, Canada writes: It's a very important drug, especially when administered this way, for many people.
  5. Kitty B from Canada writes: I think that sometimes even as a patient you just become addicted to prescription drugs. If you take them for a long period of time how does this not happen? Powerful narcotic opiates have this effect despite regulated and proper taking. Chronic pain is very misunderstood. Many people need these drugs to be functional and contribute in a meaningful way to society. It doesn't make them "drug addicts". The body learns to tolerate a prescribed amount and then needs more. I also don't think that people who use these necessary drugs in a proper way are out selling them to people who don't need them. It would only hurt them in the long run. Doctors and patients should not be punished for the wrongdoing of people who abuse non prescribed narcotics.
  6. C C from Canada writes: I agree with Kitty that these drugs have their place and most people on them probably don't sell them. Also, one must make the distinction between tolerance, dependence and addiction. Tolerance means that you need more of the medication to get the same results (ie pain relief). Dependence means that your body needs the medication to function properly. Addiction is a psychological need for the drug, for nonmedical reasons. Dependence and addiction are often confused, but additction involves the mind, whereas dependence invloves the body.
  7. J Planet from Montreal, Canada writes: Nice clarification, C C.
  8. Emma Hawthorne from Canada writes: A lot of pain sufferers have frozen themselves in contorted positions that would cause anyone to suffer pain in just a few minutes. Surely some of these sufferers would be helped by stretching through the pain, exercising, losing weight (30 pounds for back pain and knee pain), visiting chiropractors and getting shiatsu massages.
  9. gord winters from Canada writes: the article states : The patches are virtually invisible on the skin and patients and caregivers can lose track of them. it might be wise to slap a big red or blue dot on them... Emma Hawthorne, glad you have all the answers. its probably just in their heads..... if you don't feel pain, why should someone else, right?
  10. Joey Tavares from Toronto, Canada writes: Emma does bring up a good point. Can I just ask - here we have an opiod 60 times more powerful than morphine... And the debate over marijuana rages on. Buuurp.
  11. garlick toast from mill village, Canada writes: i recommend the documentary"cottonland"to anyone interested in the issue of opiates and their abuse.i got relief from chronic back and knee pain by going to a chiropractor.all nerves connect to the brain via the spinal column.if your spine is misaligned,the nerves get pinched, causing pain in other parts of the body.$700.00 later,no pain,except in the wallet.
  12. Dennis sinneD. from Calgary, Canada writes: garlick toast from mill village, it's smart and good to find alternatives to opiates, or any pain killer for that matter, but consider when pain is neuropathic in nature. Multiple sclerosis, for example. You can do little to nothing to relieve the pain and anguish.
  13. Just trying to make sense of it all from Canada writes: The Fentanyl patch has a role to play: it provides a steady stream of a drug which acts on the brain much like morphine does. It reduces the ups and downs (and the addictive behaviours) associated with other drugs like oxycodone (percocet, oxycodone), codiene, dilaudid, etc. Some of these drugs have a "contin" formulation, which when used appropriately gives 12 hour or so relief so your not on the yo-yo of pain, but frequently these get crushed, snorted, baked, boiled, etc. to get the active opiate out and then injected or snorted for a quick high. The mistake made by doctors is when this drug is given to patients who are not already taking similar doses of shorter acting drugs. It is quite easy to apply a patch, fall asleep, and never wake up again. Then again, some people to take these inappropriately. There are ways to extract the active ingredient fentanyl from the Duragesic patch, and then inject it intravenously. Otherwise these folks would be injecting heroin, dissolved oxycocet or whatever they can get their hands on. On remote locations where these drugs are more difficult to obtain, they'll sniff gasoline to escape their "pain". So the problem isn't just prescribing drugs inappropriately, or using them inappropriately. People will find their "high". But for the purposes of this report, doctors need to know about the dangers of the drug, and for that I applaud Barry McLellan for making this more widely known.
  14. S Powell from Canada writes: Let us not forget that the patient needs to be aware and involved with their health. We cannot know what drugs react with other drugs but we can keep a list of the drugs that we are on and medical conditions that we suffer from and remind doctors and pharmacists of it. With our health care in the atrocious state that it is in, we have to become our own advocates. WRT drug abuse, if someone wants it they will find a way to get it regardless of what it is they want. For the people with immediate or chronic pain that require the fentanyl patch to function, there is no way that they would sell it. I know because I've been there (major abdominal surgery, blood clot to liver, large internal infection and incisiional infection) and I had to be my own advocate.
  15. jiri Z from Canada writes: Mr. Sheppard: please do away with the "Reader's Comments" feature of your newspaper! It has become a joke.

    You, or your henchmen, presume to decide arbitrarily when certain "sensitive" articles do not allow Canadians their voice.

    Of course, the article tonight is "Osama tells the US. to bow to Mecca" or something to that effect.

    Free press? Freedom of expression? No and no. Dhimmitude? Most likely. Shame on G&M and shame on you, Sir!

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