"i went through the myriad of short acting oral analgesics, and just couldn&#039;t stand the constant ups and downs, and always felt like i was only comfortable for half of the life of the pill. i asked my doctor to take me off oxycontin (40 mg.), he offered duragesic as an alternative. 

i use 100 mcg every 3 days with no problem.  side effects are constipation, and short term memory loss. i&#039;ll happily trade that for effective pain relief. a huge plus is not developing a tolerance for it, so i don&#039;t have to have it constantly increased over the years. i don&#039;t use &quot;breakthrough&quot; meds, but i use lyrica (about 6 years now) to help with pain from nerve damage. the combination works great for me."