Fentanyl patch dosing question.

I have acquired two 50 microgram fentanyl patches. My usual opiate tolerance consists of 40-60 mg. of hydrocodone per day, or 20 mg. per dose. I can also take 60 mg. of morphine er (chewed up) at one time or usually 90-120 mg. of morphine er (chewed) per day. If taking oxycodone, my usual dose is 15-20 mg. orally per dose or 50-60 mg. orally per day.

My question is, if I take this patch like its supposed to, put on ones skin, will it be too much for me? I don't want to fuck around with chewing or smoking. I'm not even looking to get high....just to keep my pain/withdrawls at bay.

I really know nothing about these things, so any dosing and/or stay the fuck away from it advice would be appreciated. Maybe I can just wear it for an hour or something?

Thank you.

It should be fine to be using one. If you're apprehensive though, try cutting it in half and just trying that first.

How long should I leave it on for?

I believe the patches are made to be released (as in, 50ug total dose) over (the time in the post below / on the package).

Should say on the patch how long they're meant to last for, usually it's 72 hours.

A 50mcg patch is going to be roughly 90mg of oxycodone a day, which is going to be 120mg of hydrocodone. You said you take 40 to 60mg of hydrocodone a day. Taking the fentanyl patch as directed is going to AT LEAST double your dose. Further, it gets absorbed over hours into your fat cells and then slowly released, so when you get sick (and you will get very sick, based on your tolerance) it's going to last a good 8-12 hours AFTER you take off the patch. If you are going to use the fentanyl as intended, cut the patch in half. If you take the full patch, you will be kneeling in front of your toilet wishing for death. Getting sick on too much fent is worse than WDing IMO.

So, what if I just cut the patch in half and wear it for a couple/few hours, then take it off?

And yes, its a duragesic 72 hour 50 microgram/hr patch.

^ The problem with doing that is that the fentanyl is deposited in your subcutaneous tissue, so it continues to be released into your bloodstream after you take the patch off as SPC said.

Using fentanyl patches in any way other than prescribed is dodgy - all the ROAs have drawbacks. Wearing them has the issue mentioned above - using them as directed is okay if the doctor has prescribed the appropriate one, but wearing one in other circumstances is risky - it is impossible to titrate the dose and it takes a while to reach peak plasma concentration, plus it is entirely possible to remove the patch then overdose due to the subcutaneous deposition of fentanyl. I'm too tired to feel confident about doing the maths, but make absolutely sure you have done it correctly if you are going to wear a piece of the patch.

If you use a method that delivers the fentanyl faster (such as buccal) then there is a risk of overdosing if you have calculated your dose incorrectly or it hits you faster/harder than you planned. Again buccal is not great for titrating.

Smoking is the easiest way to titrate as it hits you instantly, but delivering a big hit of fentanyl like this can be really dangerous unless you know your tolerance and the dose you are getting. It's also not good for the lungs, especially if you don't have a gel-patch, and it's very short lasting so not ideal for taking away WDs.

Be careful

+1 on what Effie said. If you just want to get high, I'd suggest cutting your 50mcg patch into 8 equal parts. A 72 hour 50mcg patch contains 3.6mg of fentanyl. Fentanyl has a buccal BA of 50%. That is, when absorbed through the mouth. So your 50mcg patch will be roughly the same as 540mg of hydrocodone when taken bucally. If you cut the patch into 8 parts, and use one part at a time between your gums and cheek, each part will be about the same as 67.5mg of hydrocodone.

Fentanyl hits hard and fast. There was a time when I could easily take 200mg instant release oxycodone, and a third of one of those 50mcg patches would knock me on my ass. Half of one would literally knock me unconscious for a couple of hours. No doubt if I did a full patch (by mouth) I'd be dead. Tread VERY carefully. Fentanyl, like the Wu Tang Clan, ain't nothin' to fuck wit'.

Okay, some more questions (sorry). I believe my patch says that it contains 5 mg. of fentanyl (just saying, could the wrong.) Now when u say it equals 67 milligrams of hydrocodone (1/8th of a patch) that would be if I left the patch on for 72 hours, correct. So most likely if I took 1/8 of a full patch and left it on for 1 hour as opposed to 72 I wouldnt get the equivalent of 67 mgs. of hydrocodone? The problem is that it doesn't absorb equally the whole time I have it on, right?

Would I, with my tolerance, be safe to take 1/8th of a patch and leave it on for just one hour? Would it do anything for pain/withdrawls, or is it impossible to say. I honestly would be perfectly happy getting no high whatsoever, and it just keeping me from withdrawling when I'm out of my normal meds.

Does anyone have what they think would be a safe suggestion for me to use this patch to prevent pain/withdrawls......and if I catch a buzz I wouldn't be unhappy, haha.....thank you again for time spent answering my questions.

If you are going to wear the patch you should put it on and leave it on. It will take 8-12 hours for the drug to take effect. The mcg rating of the patch is the amount of fentanyl released per hour. So a 50mcg patch will release 50mcg fentanyl per hour, which is roughly the same as taking 15mg of hydrocodone each hour. That's 360mg of hydrocodone per day.

When you say your tolerance is 40-60mg of hydrocodone per day do you mean all at once or spaced throughout the day? If you can handle 60mg hydrocodone all at once, I'd say a quarter to a half a patch would be good. If you space 60mg hydrocodone over an entire day, you'd be better taking at most a quarter patch, and would likely get decent pain relief from one sixth of a patch.

I CAN take 40-60 mg. at once, I usually space the dose out though. Well, more like half the week space it out, half the week all at once.

So ur saying with that tolerance, to take 1/4 to 1/8 of a patch and LEAVE IT ON for 72 hours?

Why am I better leaving It on.....just so it doesnt get wasted? I am willing to waste half a patch or so for safety's sake.....heard so many horror stories about this shit. Plus, a friend of mine has pretty much the same tolerance as me, and has EXTREMELY bad rheumatoid arthritis (we're pain buddies, haha) and I wanted to give him a patch to use on a bad day.

Start with 1/8th and leave it on. The reason to leave it on is fentanyls short duration of action and long ramp up time. Say you put the patch on at 9am. You might not feel anything until 9pm, certainly not until at least 6pm. And if you take the patch off as soon as you feel it the drug is already absorbed into your fat cells and will continue to release from them for hours after removal of the patch. Once it wears off, if you decide to put the patch back on, you have another 8-12 hours to wait for the effects to begin.

You really don't get to be safe with fentanyl other than choosing the correct dose in the first place. By the time you realize you took too much (transdermally) 8-12 hours worth of the drug is already in your system. The good news though is that it's short acting in that it only lasts a couple of hours. So say you take a full 50mcg patch, this is (very roughly) what happens. This is VERY rough, just to give you an idea of the process. The drug releases from the patch into fat cells. After 8-10 hours is begins releasing into the blood stream from fat while still releasing into fat from the patch. About 2 hours after it releases into your blood you metabolize it and poof, it's gone. So the drug only lasts a couple of hours, but the process is long and relatively complex compared to just popping a pill.

Hour
1 - 50mcg absorbed by fat, 0mcg released into blood, 50mcg total in fat, 0mcg metabolized, 0mcg in blood
2 - 50mcg absorbed by fat, 0mcg released into blood, 100mcg total in fat, 0mcg metabolized, 0mcg in blood
3 - 50mcg absorbed by fat, 0mcg released into blood, 150mcg total in fat, 0mcg metabolized, 0mcg in blood
4 - 50mcg absorbed by fat, 0mcg released into blood, 200mcg total in fat, 0mcg metabolized, 0mcg in blood
5 - 50mcg absorbed by fat, 0mcg released into blood, 250mcg total in fat, 0mcg metabolized, 0mcg in blood
6 - 50mcg absorbed by fat, 0mcg released into blood, 300mcg total in fat, 0mcg metabolized, 0mcg in blood
7 - 50mcg absorbed by fat, 0mcg released into blood, 350mcg total in fat, 0mcg metabolized, 0mcg in blood
8 - 50mcg absorbed by fat, 0mcg released into blood, 400mcg total in fat, 0mcg metabolized, 0mcg in blood
9 - 50mcg absorbed by fat, 0mcg released into blood, 450mcg total in fat, 0mcg metabolized, 0mcg in blood
10 - 50mcg absorbed by fat, 50mcg released into blood, 450mcg total in fat, 0mcg metabolized, 50mcg in blood
11 - 50mcg absorbed by fat, 50mcg released into blood, 450mcg total in fat, 0mcg metabolized, 100mcg in blood
12 - 50mcg absorbed by fat, 50mcg released into blood, 450mcg total in fat, 50mcg metabolized, 100mcg in blood
13 - 50mcg absorbed by fat, 50mcg released into blood, 450mcg total in fat, 50mcg metabolized, 100mcg in blood
14 - 50mcg absorbed by fat, 50mcg released into blood, 450mcg total in fat, 50mcg metabolized, 100mcg in blood

***Here we'll assume you take off the patch or it runs out of drug (in reality the patch will keep absorbing 50mcg per hour into fat for 48-72 hours).

15 - 0mcg absorbed by fat, 50mcg released into blood, 400mcg total in fat, 50mcg metabolized, 100mcg in blood
16 - 0mcg absorbed by fat, 50mcg released into blood, 350mcg total in fat, 50mcg metabolized, 100mcg in blood
17 - 0mcg absorbed by fat, 50mcg released into blood, 300mcg total in fat, 50mcg metabolized, 100mcg in blood
18 - 0mcg absorbed by fat, 50mcg released into blood, 250mcg total in fat, 50mcg metabolized, 100mcg in blood
19 - 0mcg absorbed by fat, 50mcg released into blood, 200mcg total in fat, 50mcg metabolized, 100mcg in blood
20 - 0mcg absorbed by fat, 50mcg released into blood, 150mcg total in fat, 50mcg metabolized, 100mcg in blood
21 - 0mcg absorbed by fat, 50mcg released into blood, 100mcg total in fat, 50mcg metabolized, 100mcg in blood
22 - 0mcg absorbed by fat, 50mcg released into blood, 50mcg total in fat, 50mcg metabolized, 100mcg in blood
23 - 0mcg absorbed by fat, 50mcg released into blood, 0mcg total in fat, 50mcg metabolized, 100mcg in blood
24 - 0mcg absorbed by fat, 0mcg released into blood, 0mcg total in fat, 50mcg metabolized, 50mcg in blood
25 - 0mcg absorbed by fat, 0mcg released into blood, 0mcg total in fat, 50mcg metabolized, 0mcg in blood