Just When you Thought Oxycontin was bad enough

[nygirl7]

With SO many people becoming so heavily addicted to Oxy's they needed to come out with something stronger?!  Now this, I just don't really understand - we all know pain but to make Fentanel pills?!!!!  Holy God.

Cephalon seeks ok for new use for cancer pain drug
By Linda Loyd

INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

Cephalon Inc. said today it submitted a supplemental new drug application to U.S. regulators to sell its cancer pain medicine Fentora for chronic pain, such as lower back and neuropathic pain.

Fentora, which is a tablet form of the narcotic drug fentanyl, is currently approved to treat "breakthrough," or rapid onset of severe pain, in patients who can tolerate opioid medicines, such as morphine, and are already taking pain medication for their underlying cancer pain.

Cephalon in September sent warning letters to doctors to alert patients of serious side effects, including several reported deaths, in patients who use Fentora improperly to treat post-operative pain or migraine headaches.

Cephalon shares rose 97 cents, or 1.26 percent, to $78.23 on the Nasdaq.


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[alagirl]

I could use some fentanyl pills right about now actually.

[alagirl]

I just don't have a big problem with people who have chronic pain using the medication they need to treat it.  I don't think narcotics should be prescribed lightly, but as a sufferer of migraines from age 12 on, I do think people should get them when they need them, and I think it should be left to the physician's discretion, not the medical board or insurance companies, to tell doctors how to treat their patients.

[hack41]

As if the patches were not bad enough. atleast they were time released and you could get someone O.D.ing to the hospital. Now they can just take to many pills and there will be no time to save them from themselves. What's next pain med. adds on T.V. I can not imagine how many kids will die from this as if OXY has not killed enough yet.

Hack

[nygirl7]

From a severe accident to morphine and then demerol and then oxy's then having a doctor say OK you've been on the legal limits of this stuff for a month...it's time for you to go off them now - to full blown withdrawl and the beginning of heroin use.........I've seen how EASY it is to get completely and totally hooked by doctors. To ANYONE.

I was a very hard working single mom who got caught out there completely by pain killers and I LOVED them but let me tell you - kids who don't know better and idiots like me who just took what the doctor said.............addiction happens FAST and if you've been through narcotic withdrawl there is nothing more fun than that.

I don't think they need to keep making the narcotics that they send people home with stronger (in the case of cancer patients maybe but you KNOW that these are going to get out on the street fast) and into high schools faster...and it scares the bejezus out of me.

HACK - my exhusband used to cut the patches open and drink the gunk out of them..........he committee suicide three months ago whacked out on booze and drugs............enough is enough.  I hesitate to even THINK of it being one of my kids.

[alagirl]

Now they can just take to many pills and there will be no time to save them from themselves.
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I get really confused about why I have to suffer in pain because someone else has a problem with personal accountability.  "Saving them from themselves?"  "Taking too many pills?"

It's like saying nobody should get to drive because some people can't seem to help getting behind the wheel after they've tossed back a few.

[nygirl7]

how 'strong' do things have to be though?  drugs unfortunately get onto the street and kids who are stupid and don't know better take them.

it worries me a LOT as a mom.

Nobody should get behind the wheel after tossing backa few either really but it's sort of like having a beer or a glass of grain alcohol is what I'm saying.  Not that people shouldn't be entitled to pain meds - just what else are they going to invent next to make them stronger?

[alagirl]

I just disagree.  I've had issues requiring serious painkillers like morphine and demerol and oxycontin and lesser pain medications like lortab and darvocet.  I've never had issues going off the more profound pain medication.  You use it for the issue you need it for, and then you stop when that issue is resolved.  It's a modality like any other pharmaceutical.  I've also never noticed this narcotic "withdrawal" that people talk about so much.  I have narcotics and when I'm in a serious pain cycle I may use a lot, then I may not use any for several days after that if I don't need them and I don't notice anything.  Right now, I have a horrible migraine that's been going on for about three days - which is really lovely coupled with my normal interferon/procrit bone and joint pain.  I'm scarfing up everything in the medicine cabinet AND I guarantee you that before the night is out my son will be driving me to my doc's house for a shot.  I would LOVE to have fentanyl tabs at the house so I didn't have to go out.  It would be great.  At least my doc will treat me at his house so I don't have to spend $150 at the emergency room.  It's an issue for people with chronic pain.  The expense.  The more modalities open to us, the easier, the more cost effective, and the less time consuming our treatment is for us.

[alagirl]

drugs unfortunately get onto the street and kids who are stupid and don't know better take them.
it worries me a LOT as a mom.
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I'm a mom too.  My son is 19.  And I don't mean to sound condescending, but that's where parenting comes into play.  My kid isn't stupid and he doesn't do drugs, or drink, or smoke.  And if he ever had done any of those things he'd still be picking himself up off the ground in the next county where I would have kicked his teenage butt.  But I never had to do that, because he was too afraid of me to even try it.  As he told a friend, "My mom could crush my fragile little world."  And he was right...

[alagirl]

In essence, I don't think there is an issue with medications themselves but with prescription guidelines.  For instance, it troubles me that so many people are being given methadone these days.  What's up with that?  Methadone was supposed to be a drug used to get people off of heroin in the 70's.  Now they're prescribing the stuff left and right, along with klonipin.  I see people nodding off all over town...  It's bizarre.

[hack41]

My concren is not about folks that need pain meds. I agree that people with cornic pain should be able to get treated. As you do by a Dr. I have not seen anything in your post that says you are less than responisilbe about the use of pain meds. It is making this strong of a med in pill form that bothers me. I have 3 kids under 16, my hope is that i have done a job raising them. This med being made in a pill form will hit the streets the day it hits the local Wal-mart. The people selling it on the street will tell others that it is just a little better than OXY. You should be entitled to get relife when needed, under the care of a Dr. My concern is for the folks that will get ahold of this without the advice of a Dr. The pill form will just make it easy for them. You may not have gone through addiction, but just like tx it hits people differently.

NYgirl Last year my mother was rushed to the hospital after O.D.ing. We removed 4 patches from her body She lived but has not really been the same since. Her script was for 1 every 4 days. It is not only the kids that get hooked. My Mom is 62 years old.

[alagirl]

I guess I'm pretty libertarian in my belief system.  I just don't believe in living other people's lives for them or in essence, in protecting them from themselves.  In fact, I think drugs and prostitution should be legalized.  I don't engage in either activity but I'd love to see the taxes go to social security and the prison space go to pedophiles.

[Sunny37]

I had to chime in here......I have had crohnic pain for over 20 years of my life ....dealt with many serious surgeries and work in a very professional setting and my husband is a police officer....just to paint a picture for you.that I am not just someone who took pain meds for the fun of it...I do believe pain medication should be given to people who need it but addiction does happen very quickly.....I just took what my Dr gave me.....demerol shots....it did lead to needing more and more until I decided I couldn't live like that anymore...it happens to many people and you don't even realize it....what kills me are some of the aquaintences I have met though the years that THINK they don't have a problem and say they would have NO problem getting off it or getting addicted to it.....narcotic withdrawl is not nice and the addiction will build up over time....I guess how serious it is depends on the quality of life you want.....I have a friend with very serious migranes but takes nothing for them and another lady who has migraines who is now been in detox for the past 3 months....I guess it depends on personalities and other factors ..

[Lonestar823]

A couple weeks ago I was browsing DebNevada's journal.  She made a post about a brief encounter with Oxycontin just recently.  It was frightening.  As sick as she's been with so many difficulties on tx, she knew.  She knew and she did something about it.  I'm wondering about her lately.  Haven't seen her and if you're out there Deb, you ought to check in.  

[cajunldy]

I see and understand both sides of this subject.  Oxy and fentanyl both long term pain killer and very strong.  Oxy is missused when the pill is broken; this is a time release drug and once opened it is a full blown dose and in turn causes death.  Fentanyl patches are the same in strength of pain killers that are time release.  Once you split a patch it is no longer time release you get three days of fentanyl in one dose, it absorbs through the skin.  If they do this in a pill as Oxy it will hit the streets and as a time release if it is split the coating seal for time release if gone and a full dose is given.  Hope you can follow what I was saying there.

ON THE OTHER HAND !!!!!
My husband is now on Fentanyl 50mcg and 7.5 ES Vicodine at the same time.  He has hodgkins lymphoma and has already had stem cell transplant, it is now in his bones and needs these drugs and the easier access and expense to them make things more simplified for many people. There are only certain pharmacies that carry these type of drugs.  I know I had to hunt them down to get my husbands rx filled. I have never seen anyone in that type of pain before this with my husband. I am glad they have these drugs for him, because things won't get better not even when I will have to call Hospice In, which leads me to:

The fear of my boys and these drugs, I am sure that there will be issues with them when they lose their father and my biggest concern is my youngest.  But, I will hope that I have instilled enough in him that will keep him from that direction.
So, I worry too about these drugs because of my kids and yet soooooo grateful they are here for my husband.

Just my thoughts,
Cajun

[Forseegood]

I'm a migraine sufferer myself, just came off a two day one that knocked me flat, haven't had one this bad in awhile...I find the computer screen really bad for it, because with mine it often involves eye pain too, and this time equilibrium, nausea, the whole shootin match...just wondering if yours manifest that way too sometimes?...fyi, I see good points with your post, and NYgirls too, sometimes I think that issues here seem contradictory, but often they are just different sides to an issue with a few facets to it. Hope everyone is well....

[GoofyDad]

...one that knocked me flat

Now that's a crying shame....


Seriously - hope you're doing better...

[Forseegood]

Thanks for the sentiments. I'm fine. what's up with you? Any new shadow puppets you'd like to share?

This is my mind lately to tell you the truth...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zc2908P7bs

Be well and prosper!

[beamishboy]

my experience w/ American medical practice is that they undertreat pain...we cannot make medical decisions based on 'what if's "...we should not moralize and paternalise these issues(our puritan roots are showing? )...i am totally in agreemnt with alagirl on this issue...to deny anyone in pain a product that will relieve same because :somebody could get high on this stuff' is absurd,illogical and downright mean...our society attempts (abysmally ) to control behavior with laws that never work and do so much unintended damage iin the process....protecting kids??....."teach your children well.." cause that dog won't hunt...

[Myown]

I get really confused about why I have to suffer in pain because someone else has a problem with personal accountability.  "Saving them from themselves?"  "Taking too many pills?"

It's like saying nobody should get to drive because some people can't seem to help getting behind the wheel after they've tossed back a few.
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I agree with you 100% and I am a Conservative, so it just shows labels don't always reveal whats inside the package. This idea of "saving them from themselves," I can see in the gun control argument also. A person should loose their right to keep a gun in their house just because there are some that are irresponsible and leave their gun loaded next to their childs play pen.

Or how about just because some people don't watch their children or don't put meds out of reach, we all have to suffer by struggling to open these stupid caps they put on asprin bottles and meds.

Yes it has to be scary to have a teenager in these times - or any times really, but there are alot of people who suffer terribly with pain - especially some cancer patients before death and I certainly wouldn't want to see my mother someday - who does have cancer, suffer and all because someone else might abuse the drug.

[GoofyDad]

I pretty much agree - I mean should they outlaw neoprene wet suits and vaseline - just because of what a few of us do in the privacy of a locked bathroom stall?

On the other hand - where do y'all come down on mandatory seatbelts in cars? Or the uniform building code? Can't those issues be managed with a little common sense and self discipline?

[desrt]

"Or the uniform building code? Can't those issues be managed with a little common sense and self discipline?"
That's what I try to tell the building inspectors. They still don't like horizontal wet vents.

[Lady Lauri]

  In a rush, haven't read thru all of this but.......

" And I don't mean to sound condescending, but that's where parenting comes into play"

D*mn right! And that is NOT to say that good parents still don't have kids that get on drugs...just STAY involved and AWARE! It's EVERYWHERE! Even in mom or grandpa's medicine cabinet! When I had teens in and out all day at my house, any med's I may have had were tucked away.....and not that they were doing them, but all it takes is the one kid that does to snatch a bottle and say "hey, try these, their great' to another young, dumb teen. Yes, those that NEED meds should get them, but always be aware that you have 'drugs' to a teen laying around. Like a gun, put them up!
I consider myself a very good parent. One of mine.....wrong crowd, NOT street smart..blah, blah, started trying drugs. NOT!!  I went 'in', a few times,  drug his a*s home and straightened has arse out! 2 years later doing great, drug free and so on. NOT that it's that easy always, but I wouldn't give up.  (And this was with a mother that is ALREADY involved in doing stuff like that with other kids, parents!! Dumb kid!! )
    I just agree with 'never give up' on the 'kids' thing. Just my take, sure many may say 'ahhh, can't help them if they don't want help" and so on, but hasn't failed for me! And I just couldn't leave my 'kid' out there. Last time I heard an adult or kid say "uhhh, I hate parting and drugs, will you help me quit" is......never!
          
                                                                                      LL

[Jessica623]

My mother died from OXY overdose. She did not realize how strong it was!!

[Lady Lauri]

My sis with 'chronic cancer' had just been put on that patch. She hated it, felt terrible, horrible nightmares and terrible depression!! Put her on the patch as she had a 'cross over' prescription....where they gave her one for pain meds...was too expensive AND wrong dose written, so never got it and they called in another. So 'records' showed she had both, doing both as wasn't recorded as 'NOT filled' and they thought she was doing 'too many' ! What a meeting that was when she figured it out! Good God, the woman is 7 years off/on chemo, incurable cancer....give her the freaking pill's! WHY put her on a 'morphine' patch when not needed yet too!!
  Called her when I saw this post and she'd already stopped the patchs.

                                                                                                 LL