Duragesic: time to theraputic levels

[Guest guest]

Hi all,

I am not afraid to get looked down upon if my views are controversial,

so there. *big smile*

According to www.duragesic.com it takes about 2 hours for a duragesic

patch to reach a theraputic level of fentanyl in the blood stream. I

just started back on them after several months off and I can confirm

that for me it took 2 hours to reach a point of pain relief.

They are designed for use in treating chronic pain so all your words

in support of that are correct. But that does not mean they can't be

used for shorter terms. It is hoped that I will only be on them for a

couple of weeks this time. The point in using them is that they

provide a continual release of medication to combat a constant pain

level. There is nothing odd about the drug fentanyl to make it

different from other opiod-based pain killers. The drug fentanyl is

just quite strong and is therefore reserved for opiod-resistant

patients. Some trauma doctors like to use fentanyl even for acute pain

and they will give IV fentanyl for things like blunt force trauma as

the result of a motor vehicle accident. And I have had acute attacks

of pancreatitis and was prescribed fentanyl IV in the ER when I told

the doctors I was allergic to demerol.

The patches are a committment and fentanyl is a very strong pain

killer so that is why duragesic was designed for chronic pain patients

, but I do believe they can be used for shorter term applications, of

say 2 - 4 weeks, simply because I am using them in this way.

BTW my process for getting off the patch will include switching from

the 50 mcg patch to the 25 for 3 days, then to switch to oxycodone for

breakthrough pain and withdrawl symptoms and then to gradually reduce

my use of the oxycodone. Hopefully the withdrawl wont be as bad as it

was when I had been on the patch for several months.

blessings,

Bert