Anyone have experiences with these? My back dr prescribed them to me today. Can I swim with one on? That's about the only exercise i can do right now with my back.

Update. Had to come off the patch. Was strung out for 3 days. Felt like I was a junkie. Took the patch off last night and found a blister. Itches quite bad.

Called my back dr this morning to tell him. I'm going to do a cortisone injection instead. No more narcotics for me.

they work but like all pain meds.. you will eventually have to keep getting a higher dose due to tolerance..

Buprenorphine is an opioid, narcotic analgesic, but it has one unique property. Unlike morphine, fentanyl, hydrocodone, etc. that are potent opioid receptor agonists, buprenorphine is a mixed agonist/antagonist, which makes it ideal for recovering opioid abusers participating in rehab - it is combined with naloxone (an opioid antagonist) in a drug commonly known as SUBOXONE for that purpose. It's much more safer in overdose.

There are some indications that buprenorphine has some downfalls because of its mixed action, as some patients do report the same symptoms you reported. If the steroid injection fails to do the trick, I'd consider traditional narcotics like hydrocodone or fentanyl patches (DURAGESIC).

I have been using BuTrans patches for over a year now. I started at 5 mcg/hr and am now at the max my pain dr will allow, 20 mcg/hr.

I'm so sorry they didn't work for you as I have had great success with them. I take 3 oxycodone 10-325 a day to help with pain (not for breakthrough since I take them everyday as I explained to my dr ).

I do have some itching at some of the sites.....some sites are better than others. Just adding this info for anyone else that comes along to read this thread.

I really hope the shots work for you.

Debi from Georgia

Hi Moreta,

Thanks so much for sharing your experience.
We all react differently and it helps others to share our various experiences.

I was hoping to try this patch after learning of several people having success with them. My doctors will not consider these patches for me. I think this is very individualized, as I did not have good luck with drugs like methadone. I have tried many pain meds (and many different med approaches).

I chose MS Contin (extended release) because this helped my pain and did not make me feel high or otherwise altered. It's been over 14 years of MS Contin and dilaudid for breakthrough pain. (I also do not feel altered with low-dose oral diluadid. I do feel altered with dilaudid administered by an IV, however.)
MS Contin (and dilaudid) does not help me enough when having severe neuropathic pain. Clonidine has been helpful with neuropathic pain; however, the side-effects have been rather severe for me. (I am very sensitive to medications.)

Much may depend on the cause of the pain, the type of pain.
Narcotics, alone, are not very helpful with inflammatory pain.

I see many people doing well with cortisone and/or gel injections, for instance, when having severe joint pain.

I hope the solution is an easy one for you.
Thanks again for sharing.


DejaVu