optimisticAnd a big hello to Durogesic® DTrans®! They were put onto the market at the end of January, but this is the first time that I've been given them.
They're much like the older ones — the same 72-hour effective duration and the same dosages (25, 50, 75 and 100 mikes/hr.) — but they're smaller and use 'matrix technology' (I feel so modern! All trenchcoats and slidey green symbols!) instead of being a bag of goopy gel. Maybe the new adhesive won't make my skin itch so much.
There's a quite good article about them here; but what I particularly wanted to comment on is this excerpt:
The British Pain Society, in conjunction with the Royal Colleges of General Practice, Anaesthetics and Psychology, has recently issued recommendations for the use of strong opioids in the management of chronic pain to enable those people not currently receiving adequate pain relief from weaker medications to benefit from the improvements in quality of life and pain control that opioids can offer. Also, following an educational programme, a recent survey of almost 300 GPs (analysed by Synergy Healthcare Research), found that 87% of GPs agreed that strong opioids offered people with severe chronic pain the best opportunity to achieve acceptable pain control, and would prescribe them for appropriate patients.
Well, that's really good news. One hears so many appalling stories of people not being given adequate (which often does mean opioids) pain relief by doctors who worry that they may become addicted, despite it being well known that people taking opioids for pain relief don't generally become addicted. Habituated (the dose needed for pain control may rise over time as the brain receptors respond to being bathed in opioids all the time) yes, but not addicted. And, honestly, if you're in a terminal condition, as so many of these poor people are, why the fuck would it matter anyway if they were to become addicted? they're not going to bust out of the ICU and mug little old ladies to sustain their habit, are they?
I'd like to know how the other 13% of those GPs responded.
