Patent ID: 7648982

Claim:
A pain management method enabling a pain sufferer to self medicate by repeated dosing with an opioid formulation to achieve analgesia while avoiding toxicity, wherein the method relies solely on the actions of the pain sufferer to manage intake of said opioid during the medication process, said method comprising the steps of: the pain sufferer continuously inhaling the formulation using a pulmonary drug delivery device adapted to deliver particles of the formulation into the lungs at an effective rate to produce analgesia; and stopping inhalation when, during the medication process, satisfactory analgesia is achieved or at the onset of a side effect; wherein the formulation comprises an effective amount of fentanyl and liposomally encapsulated fentanyl; the combination and a concentration of each opioid, and an effective rate of delivery of the particles selected so that, during inhalation, analgesia is achieved before the onset of said side effect, and the onset of said side effect occurs before the onset of toxicity, and so that the maximum total opioid plasma concentration does not reach toxic levels, whereby the onset of said side effect can be used by the pain sufferer to terminate inhalation to avoid toxicity by said stopping of inhalation of said formulation by the pain sufferer when said onset of said side effect is felt by the pain sufferer, wherein the ratio of said fentanyl to said liposomally encapsulated fentanyl is selected such that a combined pharmacokinetic profile of the fentanyl and the liposomally encapsulated fentanyl has a combined effect curve providing a peak concentration at an effect site at between 10 and 30 minutes and a concentration at the effect site of a magnitude of at least 85% of said peak concentration for at least two hours.