An apparent fatal overdose of another opiate while coming off OxyContin has forced doctors to rethink the amount they should give to patients.

An apparent fatal overdose of another opiate while coming off OxyContin has forced doctors to rethink the amount they should give to patients.

The Globe and Mail reported Monday that a man from the Thunder Bay area may have overdosed on a prescribed drug opiate analgesic. The article didn't state if it the drug was OxyNEO, the drug meant to be a substitute for the more popular painkiller OxyContin.

OxyNEO is intended to be more difficult to abuse because it is not easily crushed, which is necessary if the abuser wants to snort or inject the drug.

The man had reportedly taken OxyContin for years for chronic pain, but was recently switched to a different opiate and died of an apparent overdose.

The article stated it wasn’t a clear how he was taking the medication.

The death prompted the Ontario College of Physicians and Surgeons to tell its members to take a different approach when prescribing the doses for that drug and other opioid alternative. In order to assist doctors and pharmacists, the CPSO created a conversion chart.

“Given the complexities of opiate prescribing and dispensing, it is critical that we work together to ensure the safety of the public,” Bob Byrick, president of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario, said in a news release issued in February.

In Thunder Bay, some pharmacies are taking the matter seriously.

Brenda Adams, owner of Janzen’s Pharmacy, said many of her clients have asked questions about the transition to OxyNEO.

They generally tell patients that their medical needs will be looked after on an individual basis and reassures them that they are taken care of, she said.

In some cases, it might be more appropriate to keep a patient on OxyContin.

But the recent death has caused the pharmacy to be even more cautious when filling out prescriptions, she said.

“It is our job as pharmacists to work closely with the practitioners to make sure no matter what patients are being switched to where it’s OxyNEO that we provide proper and correct information with equivalent doses changed,” Adams said.

“Any incident in medication just heightens our awareness of the fact that each and every day we have to use extreme care and caution when we are doing our jobs. The changes have come about pretty quickly in the market. Any new drug, we have to ensure we’re fully aware of the prescribing parameters.”

She said she didn’t want to alarm patients by telling them about this story and wanted to reassure that they are doing their job and taking care of patients.

She added if people are concerned about anything that’s unusual, they feel when on OxyNEO they should contact their pharmacist for help.