Tucson, AZAfter five years of suffering mental and physical side effects from chronic back pain medication, Frank begged his doctor to prescribe a non-narcotic painkiller. The adhesive Duragesic pain patch sounded ideal but didn't take long for his situation to worsen.
"At first I thought it was terrific," says Frank. "Anything was better than the shivering, my fluctuating body temperature and mental problems I experienced when I was on OxyContin. Right off the top, the patch seemed to provide more consistent relief."
The Duragesic patch releases a steady dose of the potent opioid Fentanyl through the skin, bringing up to 72 hours of pain relief. By its design, however, Fentanyl is encapsulated between a waterproof backing and drug-permeable liner, and can leak or be forced out through accidental or intentional cuts, leading to a possible overdose. Frank, though unaware, started to display the telltale signs.
"I started sleeping all the time," Frank says. "My wife got worried because my breathing was so shallow." Other overdose symptoms include the inability to think, talk, and walk normally; cold, clammy skin; and faintness, dizziness and confusion.
"After five years I wanted to get off it." says Frank. "But I was told I needed to stay on, but all the same I tried several times to take myself off it, but after the second day, I'd start feeling very cranky and would get a little tense with my wife."
Frank became a walking advertisement for the side effects of the Duragesic patch. "My wife would make a meal but I didn't want to eat," he says. "I used to weigh 199 lbs and went down to 165. Worse problems came up: sometimes I'd get so constipated I had to go to Emergency. When we had company, I couldn't participate. I'd lose my train of thought."
For the ten years Frank used the Duragesic patch, he felt as if he barely saw his family, because of the sleepiness. "We live on five acres so my wife did lots of yard work, took the garbage to the dump, watched TV--always by herself. I felt terrible but just couldn't do anything."
Chance could very well have saved his life. One day he made a special effort to get up and watch TV with his wife. "There was a report on that said pharmaceutical companies were finally admitting that they had been lying to doctors about the Duragesic patch."
That was the summer of 2007 and it marked a turning point in the troubled history of the Duragesic pain patch. In June, a Florida family was awarded a landmark $5.5 million for the death of their son in the first ever federal Duragesic pain patch trial against Johnson & Johnson subsidiaries Janssen Pharmaceutica and Alza Corporation.
The product had already been under attack since 2004 after two recalls due to leakage of the powerful gel. The recalls sparked an ongoing investigation by the FDA, which has since issued several two public warnings of related deaths and life-threatening adverse effects.
After the breaking news of the lawsuit, Frank had no trouble convincing his doctor to sign him up for a detoxification program in July 2007. "The doctor there admitted that I was the first Duragesic patch patient he'd ever dealt with," he says. "I didn't feel too good hearing that but to me, they were the doctors, they knew what they were doing. They wouldn't let anything bad happen."
Frank had expected to be put on a progressive step program but instead he was taken off both of his patches within four days. "I had one 100 mm patch and one 25 mm. I remember that when I had tried to take myself off, I never got down past 75 mm before going into a tailspin. They took me off both almost cold turkey."
"I remember walking around at night, not knowing where I was," Frank says. "I felt very disoriented, and my mind felt like it was fading away from my body. It was a horrible feeling."
After two weeks he was released from the detoxification clinic. Seven months later, he is now on a non-narcotic medication. He still has trouble sleeping, extra pain in his leg and the pain in his back reaches higher. "I'm more alert now, though," Frank says. "I'm eating everyday and enjoying being with my grandkids, and I do more with my wife. But my focus is so bad I'm seeing a psychiatrist. Some days I feel like I'm going through withdrawal. And I still have male erectile dysfunction. I'm told it would take about two years for the Duragesic patch effects to leave my body."
Frank was one of the lucky ones who survived such a prolonged use of the Duragesic pain patch. Despite five recalls of this product there seems to be little danger of it being completely taken off the market. The danger is, in fact, in the consumer's court. Consider consulting a lawyer.