Posted by Elizabeth on April 8, 2002, at 0:29:21
In reply to Re: Use of the Fentanyl Patch: Judy, Anyone » shelliR, posted by jay on April 5, 2002, at 21:31:53
Jay --
The TCAs and Tegretol really are not general pain medications/analgesics. They're for certain specific kinds of pain, and I don't know if they'd work for Shelli's.
> I've been trying to explore this area for a long time, because codiene is an excellent a.d. for me, and is available OTC here in Canada.
Codeine and fentanyl are pretty much the opposite ends of the opioid spectrum! :-)
I did try using buprenorphine on an as-needed basis, but I found that I really need it all the time. The side effects suck, though.
How much codeine do you typically take? I wouldn't be concerned about liver damage unless you go over 1000 mg of APAP or so. If you're doing that, you can add N-acetylcysteine (available at your local health-food store). My understanding (I've never actually done this) is that you take 1 mg NAC for each mg of APAP.
Curiously, in the USA it's very hard to get a script for plain codeine, with no other crap added. The reason is that unadulterated codeine is Schedule II, the same controlled substance category as morphine and fentanyl and oxymorphone and so forth. All plain, full-agonist opioids are, as is Percocet (oxycodone with APAP). Codeine and hydrocodone with other stuff added are Schedule III, though. So the docs figure that if you're hurting enough that you "deserve" a Schedule II drug, you probably need something stronger than codeine. Just silliness at usual here in the south. :-}
-elizabeth
poster:Elizabeth
thread:102083
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020402/msgs/102348.html