Has anyone ever used or heard of a "morphine patch" for chronic back and leg pain ??my mom is 81 and has

degenerative disc disease with nerve pain down both her legs. tried everything so far - shots, acupuncture, physical therapy, chiropractor, pain meds, etc. she is not a candidate for surgery because of her age. i hate to see her in so much pain and heard from a few people about this patch. i also heard of a morphine thing surgically inserted into the spine. so confused ..... anyone have any thoughts on this ???

I have worked for a Rheumatology Dr. for 5 years, and we see DDD and peripheral neuropathy (that's what it sounds like)
patients on a daily basis. Your concerns are not unreasonable given your mom's age. But, if she is considering this invasive procedure, you may want to discuss the patch before letting a surgeon insert anything into her spine. The down side to any morphine derivative is dependency: Ive known patients to become dependent on the patches, and to wean off, it's a very slow process. The other concern is, in the elderly, you have to monitor her for lethargic behavior. BUT, in the end, if it's a matter of her pain relief, keep in mind that with whatever you all choose for her treatment, there will always be side effects. The advantage of pills or the patch is that she can control the dose, whereas with the surgical option, it's almost like she would be resigning herself to a life of pain. Get a 2nd and even a 3rd opinion, please, for your own peace of mind and your mom's safety. Good luck to you.

Fentanyl, the morphine patch, can be very helpful for back pain. It is however highly addictive. They should send her to a pain medicine clinic or specialist who can then determine the best thing for her. I have heard with the injections they need to give a few before they actually work. Ask also about methadone treatment, it is cheap and usually works very well if not better than the stronger drugs.

There is a fentanyl patch that comes in varying doses and delivers pain meds through the skin over a course of three days, and then the patch is changed. There r also different kinds of pain pumps that r implanted in the abdomen and deliver continuous doses of pain medication like morphine and dilaudid. I don't know how complicated it is to insert one, u would need to speak to a physician.

patches with morphine like substances e.g. fentanyl and buprenorphine are quite common. never heard of anything being injected into the spine apart from an epidural and i don't think that would be appropriate.

I have heard of a Fentanyl Patch which is a morphine derivative. There are lots of different pain management techniques.

My grandma takes them for her headaches and she loves them...probably to much! But it's better than nothing. At this point, she needs something to comfort her.

I live in chronic knee pain because of botched-up replacement surgery. The three things that work for me are 4 to 8 Aleve per day (this is an overdose) deep massage & ice bags for 20 min. at a time

Back pain has a multitude of origins. If she has shooting down her legs she probably has compression of a nerve, most likely where it branches out from the spine. DJD can aggrevate this, as can arthritis.

The shots are epidural steroid injections. They work probably around 70% of the time. You need 2 or 3 to really see an effect. They can be repeated every year. If the joint space narrows too much they will no longer be effective.

Pain medicines are generally narcotics or nonsteroidals. Narcotics like morphine, fentanyl, demoral, dilaudid can be given as pill, liquid, patch, suppository, or from an implanted pump. For chronic pain patients a long acting compound like fentanyl patch or methadone work best. Nonsteroidals like tylenol, aspirin, ibuprofen though not giving as much of a bang as narcotics work in a different way and should still be used.

Other options are surgery (age has nothing to do with it), radiofrequency ablation, TENS, physical therapy, massage, ...

You should take her to an interventional pain specialist to discuss these options. That is an anesthesiologist, neurologist or PMR physician. A psychiatrist, internist, or surgeon are generally not going to offer these options.

the patch might help your mom.it helped my mom.would not try the surgically inserted into spine.this was done to my mom also and if i had known then what it was going to do to her i would never let the doc.do it.she ended up being in more pain than ever and she was only 63.she screamed from the muscle spasams which was caused from the procedure and meds.my mom had pancreatic cancer when this was done.lost her 3 yrs ago 10/11/03