Ostensibly due to injuries received during military service, Lugosi developed severe, chronic sciatica. Though at first he was treated with benign pain remedies such as asparagus juice, doctors increased the medication to opiates. The growth of his dependence on opiates, particularly morphine and, after 1947 when it became available in America, methadone, was directly proportional to the dwindling of Lugosi's screen offers. He was finally cast in the role of Frankenstein's monster for Universal's "Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man" (1943), but Lugosi's dialogue was edited out after the film was shot, along with the fact that the Monster was blind, leaving his performance featuring outstretched arms seeming enigmatic to audiences. Lugosi's voice had been dubbed over that of Lon Chaney Jr., from line readings at the end of "The Ghost of Frankenstein" (1942). Lugosi played Dracula for a second and last time on film in "Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein" (1948).