Ask Dr. Marks: 09/03

I’ve heard a lot about pain patches recently. Are they effective, addictive, expensive? Pain patches are very effective at delivering narcotic pain relievers. The patches are placed on an area of clean skin and produce a narcotic concentration gradient that transports the narcotic through the skin into the blood stream. The narcotic, usually Fentanyl, is released over a period of three days instead of the few hours of pain relief achieved by pills. …