If you suspect someone has overdosed, the most important step to take is to call 911 so he or she can receive immediate medical attention. Once medical personnel arrive, they will administer naloxone. Naloxone is a medicine that can treat an opioid overdose when given right away. It works by rapidly binding to opioid receptors and blocking the effects of opioid drugs. Naloxone is available as an injectable (needle) solution and nasal sprays (NARCAN® Nasal Spray and KLOXXADO®). If a woman uses prescription opioids when she’s pregnant, the baby could develop dependence and have withdrawal symptoms after birth.
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If any of these effects last or get worse, tell your doctor or pharmacist promptly. If you have nausea, it may help to take this drug with food. Ask your doctor or pharmacist about other ways to decrease nausea (such as lying down for 1 to 2 hours with as little head movement as possible). Vicodin is available as tablets that are taken by mouth as needed for pain. Vicodin is available as a generic medication called hydrocodone/acetaminophen. Following a 10 vicodin addiction mg oral dose of hydrocodone administered to five adult male subjects, the mean peakconcentration was 23.6 ± 5.2 ng/mL.
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The right length for an opioid taper varies with each person and each medicine. Your healthcare professional works with you to create an opioid taper schedule that meets your medical needs while keeping risks to your health low. Medicines that interact with hydrocodone may either decrease its effect, affect how long it works, increase side effects, or have less of an effect when taken with hydrocodone.
- It is not known whether opioid effects on fertility are permanent.
- In the United States, people are more likely to die by opioid overdose than car crashes.
- Accidental ingestion of hydrocodone bitartrate and acetaminophen oral solution, especially by children, can result in a fatal overdose of hydrocodone bitartrate and acetaminophen.
- Symptoms may vary depending on several issues, such as the speed of the opioid taper and how long you’ve used opioid medicines.
- If too much of this medicine is taken for a long time, it may become habit-forming (causing mental or physical dependence) or cause an overdose.
- Tolerance is theneed for increasing doses of opioids to maintain a defined effect such as analgesia (in the absence ofdisease progression or other external factors).
Adverse effects associated with long-term opioid use
Risks are increased inpatients with a personal or family history of substance abuse (including drug or alcohol abuse oraddiction) or mental illness (e.g., major depression). The potential for these risks should not, however,prevent the proper management of pain in any given patient. Follow the patient for signs and symptoms ofopioid withdrawal. If a CYP3A4 inducer is discontinued, consider hydrocodone bitartrate andacetaminophen tablets dosage reduction and follow for signs of respiratory depression. While taking hydrocodone, you should talk to your doctor about having a rescue medication called naloxone readily available (e.g., home, office). Naloxone is used to reverse the life-threatening effects of an overdose.
- In 2015, more than 20,000 people died from opioid prescription-related overdoses in the United States, according to the American Society of Addiction Medicine.
- Risk of drug interactions that can result in fatal overdose.
- Note that this list is not all-inclusive and includes only common medications that may interact with hydrocodone.
- To find out more about how these drugs compare, talk with your doctor.
- To prevent this, your doctor may direct you to take laxatives, drink a lot of fluids, or increase the amount of fiber in your diet.
Therapeutic doses of acetaminophen have negligible effects on the cardiovascular or respiratorysystems; however, toxic doses may cause circulatory failure and rapid, shallow breathing. The principal therapeutic action of hydrocodone is analgesia. Hydrocodone produces respiratorydepression by direct action on brain stem respiratory centers. The respiratory depression involves areduction in the responsiveness of the brain stem respiratory centers to both increases in carbon dioxidetension and electrical stimulation. However, specific CNS opioid receptorsfor endogenous compounds with opioid-like activity have been identified throughout the brain andspinal cord and are thought to play a role in the analgesic effects of this drug.
The amount of medicine that you take depends on the strength of the medicine. Also, the number of doses you take each day, the time allowed between doses, and the length of time you take the medicine depend on the medical problem for which you are using the medicine. Using this medicine with any of the following is usually not recommended, but may be unavoidable in some cases. If used together, your doctor may change the dose or how often you use this medicine, or give you special instructions about the use of food, alcohol, or tobacco. Using this medicine with any of the following medicines is usually not recommended, but may be required in some cases. If both medicines are prescribed together, your doctor may change the dose or how often you use one or both of the medicines.
