Often those moments characterised by extreme pain – physical or emotional – leave a deep impression on our lives. The plight of someone who experiences chronic pain is only imaginable! Emotional pain is difficult to handle still various therapies exist to alleviate the condition. The key is to find out which therapy suits you best.
Likewise, there are many painkiller medicines available in the market today; not every one is best suited to tackle conditions such as Tennis elbow, Arthritis Deformans (chronic form of arthritis), Peritendinitis (swelling of tendons), Myalgia (muscle pain), Spondylitis (swelling of vertebrae) etc that are characterised by chronic pain. Also, the fact most of the painkiller drugs leave side-effects with prolonged use is not a buried one.
Dr. Preeti Govind, Head of Pain Management, Sr. Anesthesiologist, Indian Spinal Injury Centre, New Delhi Certain health conditions such as Myalgia, Arthritis etc. are characterised by a lot of pain. Even cancer patients have to bear a lot of chronic pain. Such patients often depend on heavy doses of pain relievers. We often find pain killer addiction among sufferers of chronic pain. Patients become habitually dependent on these medicines. Even though the person may take an increased dose of pain killer pills/tablets he/she may not respond well to them. The patient feels only poor –mediocre relief from their painful condition as the days pass by.
Many a times the pain associated with trauma/ surgery and /or muscle spasms in neck/shoulder and back is intense and is not easily managed by popping in a pill. The patient feels drowsy, nausea and has problems in concentrating upon his work/tasks. All this and no gain on the pain front!
However, now there’s a ray of hope for the sufferers of chronic pain. Such people can now look forward to what is called Transdermal patches. The latter are band-aid like patches that deliver the pain killer medication through the patient’s skin into his/her bloodstream. Also explains, Dr. Preeti Govind, “A transdermal patch is a medicated adhesive patch which when placed on the skin, helps in effective management of chronic pain conditions. The first transdermal patch was approved by the USFDA way back in 1979. Since then, transdermal patches have come a long way. In India, however, there is not much awareness about these as of now.”
He further explains, “New-generation patches such as Fen-Touch Fentanyl Transdermal Patches are highly advanced and delivers timely only the specific dose of medication that is required. Once placed on the affected area (skin) they can deliver, in the patient’s body, the standardised doses of medication through out the day and can be used for over a period of several hours to days post application.”
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Fen-Touch patches involve non-invasive delivery of medication from the surface of the skin – the largest and most accessible organ of the human body – through its layers, to the circulatory system. These use a special membrane to control the rate at which the drug contained within the patch can pass through the skin and into the bloodstream. This in turn ensures that only the right amount of prescribed medicine goes into the body of the patient and there are no changes of overdoses and thus is considered safe over oral medications.
These therapeutic patches comes in different capacities ranging from 1.25 mg to 10 mg, where the drugs reaches the body system in a calibrated and controlled speed ranging from 12.5 to 100 micrgrams of Fentanyl (painkiller medicine) per hour. Doctors now-a-days recommend transdermal patches to patients who endure a lot of pain and usually find it cumbersome to take tablets/pills after every few hours.
Dr. Govind, discloses, “A patient is thoroughly accessed for his/her chronic pain before advising him/her a fentanyl transdermal patch. The latter scores above traditional approaches of pain management. Transdermal patch is a non-invasive, painless and simple application that effectively manages chronic pain conditions. It is extremely beneficial for those who suffer from a lot of back/neck/shoulder pain owning to their poor lifestyle habits. While proper diet, exercise and rest are essential, fentanyl transdermal patch comes handy in alleviating pain and ensuring relief at work or home on a day to day basis.”
A transdermal drug delivery systems offer several important advantages over oral medication, such as:
* Longer duration of action resulting in a reduction in dosing frequency
* Increased convenience to administer drugs which would otherwise require frequent dosing
* Reduced side effects and improved therapy due to maintenance of plasma levels up to the end of the dosing interval
* Flexibility of terminating the drug administration by simply removing the patch from the skin
* Improved patient compliance and comfort via non-invasive, painless and simple application
So, if you too suffer from chronic pain, it is time to learn more about effective management of chronic pain via transdermal patches. After all, a patch is better than a pill any day!
