MDs warned to take patients off OxyContin carefully
N.L. regulator's warning follows Ontario death
Newfoundland and Labrador's medical regulator is warning doctors to be careful when they move patients from OxyContin to a different painkiller.
"A recent death in Ontario highlights the need for physicians in Newfoundland and Labrador to be especially vigilant in determining the correct dosage when converting patient medication from OxyContin to another opioid," says a recent College of Physicians and Surgeons of Newfoundland and Labrador news release.
OxyContin has been discontinued by its maker Purdue Pharma and replaced with a new formulation called OxyNEO. Both contain oxycodone but the company says OxyNEO is more difficult to abuse.
Drug abusers crushed OxyContin, then snorted and injected it to produce a heroine-like high.
Newfoundland and Labrador, following the advice of the Atlantic Expert Advisory Committee, is no longer listing the prescription painkiller OxyContin or its replacement OxyNEO as part of its Prescription Drug Program (NLPDP).
A man recently died in northwestern Ontario after his physician took him off OxyContin and prescribed another long-acting opioid. He wasn't prescribed OxyNEO because it isn't covered in Ontario either.
Dr. Michael Wilson, the regional supervising coroner for northwestern Ontario, spoke with reporters in Ontario recently.
"There was an apparent inadvertent or unintentional dose escalation. I spoke to the doctor and the doctor just basically said that it was a mistake," he said.
Conversion charts are available to help physicians determine the appropriate dose of alternate opioid therapies for chronic pain management. These conversion charts and other useful practice tools are available from the Michael G. DeGroote National Pain Centre website.