Hello I am in a nursing rehab facility I have cp, fibromyalgia.compressed fractures let alone chronic pain. They are telling me they are going to take me off my pain meds, they have already cut it in half and the pain is unbearable..any suggestions? I did go to a pain clinic in which they know nothing about my medical history the Dr. There is the one that said to cut me off as the meds are what s causing the pain. Mind you I saw this Dr when I was an inpatient at her hospital at the time I was taking oxycodone and percocet that was prescribed by my primary rehab & pain management Dr s, anyway she stopped the Percocet which is ok but now 2 yr s later with more injury s she wants to take me off all pain med s. Please any advice would be helpful. The Dr. Here does not seem to care or want to understand.
Well, obviously there are several questions we are not going to deal with here on why someone is being taken off of narcotics. How much drug and how much problems someone has had from them, etc.The pattern of stopping the drug depends on the amount of narcotic. People with surgical problems get stopped all the time and there is no problem. The duration they were on them is short and the doses are below those that cause withdrawal (under 30 mg a day of morphine or oxycodone). If the amount taken is much higher, then withdrawal can occur. Several things can be done for that 1) keep someone on narcotics possibly in a drug treatment context like methadone clinic 2) add drugs that lower the withdrawal symptoms like clonidine (nobody uses reserpine but I've no idea why not). Then for drug tapering, typically one would lower the dose by > 10% and less than 50% and see what happens. The symptoms start in 24 hrs, peak about 3 to 5 days and diminish in 1-2 weeks. Tapering at 1 week intervals is fast and 1 month intervals is slow; those would be the usual time frames used.