OxyContin Uses, Side Effects, and Dangers

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), these practices are key components of opioid safety and significantly reduce the likelihood of misuse and addiction. Oxy addiction is a significant component of the broader opioid crisis in the United States. Opioids, including prescription medications like oxycodone, are highly addictive and have been major contributors to the drug overdose epidemic.

Oxycodone vs OxyContin – What’s the difference?

Recognizing that someone has an addiction to oxycodone could help save their life. Not only is it an expensive and debilitating addiction, overdose from oxycodone is a very real — and potentially deadly — possibility. Cutting, breaking, chewing, crushing or dissolving OXYCONTIN impairs the controlled-release delivery mechanism and results in the rapid release and absorption of a potentially fatal dose of oxycodone.

Habits for Proper Mental Health

Additional doses may be given every 2 to 3 minutes, if symptoms return before medical help arrives. Inform patients that opioids could cause a rare but potentially life-threatening condition called serotonin syndrome resulting from concomitant administration of serotonergic drugs. Warn patients of the symptoms of serotonin syndrome and to seek medical attention right away if symptoms develop. Instruct patients to inform their healthcare provider if they are taking, or plan to take serotonergic medications see DRUG INTERACTIONS. If the decision is made to prescribe a benzodiazepine or other CNS depressant concomitantly with an opioid analgesic, prescribe the lowest effective dosages and minimum durations of concomitant use.

Call your doctor if you have any unusual problems while you are taking this medication. This medication may be prescribed for other uses; ask your doctor or pharmacist for more information. Oxycodone is also available in combination with acetaminophen (Oxycet®, Percocet®, others) and aspirin (Percodan®). This monograph only includes information about the use of oxycodone alone. If you are taking an oxycodone combination product, be sure to read information about all the ingredients in the product you are taking and ask your doctor or pharmacist for more information. If you or someone you love is struggling with addiction, getting help is just a phone call away, or consider trying therapy online with BetterHelp.

• These differences in addiction risk are influenced by oxycodone’s pharmacological properties, including its ability to bind strongly to opioid receptors, creating a rapid and intense reward system in the brain.
• Oxycodone addiction is a physical and psychological dependence on the drug, leading to compulsive use despite harmful consequences.
• Table 4 includes clinically significant drug interactions with OxyContin.
• If an opioid analgesic is initiated in a patient already taking a benzodiazepine or other CNS depressant, prescribe a lower initial dose of the opioid analgesic, and titrate based on clinical response.
• Recognizing these symptoms and seeking help early is crucial for effective treatment and recovery.

Why do some people develop an addiction to oxycodone?

Check with your doctor right away if you have anxiety, restlessness, a fast heartbeat, fever, sweating, muscle spasms, twitching, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, or see or hear things that are not there. Your risk may be higher if you also take certain other medicines that affect serotonin levels in your body. Using this medicine while you are pregnant may cause serious unwanted effects, including neonatal withdrawal syndrome in your newborn baby. Tell your doctor right away if you think you are pregnant or if you plan to become pregnant while using this medicine.

Taking medications only as prescribed is the first step to protecting yourself and your loved ones. Monitoring OxyContin’s side effects can give you insight into any concerning changes that may occur while taking this medication. You can develop an opioid use disorder while taking OxyContin when a prescriber fails to provide “appropriate medical supervision” or you misuse the medication.

Recovery duration varies, spanning several months to years, but MAT’s reliance on long-term medication use raises concerns about dependency. Recovery typically takes 5 to 10 days, depending on the severity of the addiction, but it does not address the psychological components, requiring follow-up care for sustained recovery. However, if you choose other routes of OxyContin intake, like snorting or injecting the drug, you may experience heightened effects of euphoria.

• Some have developed a tolerance, while others don’t yet realize the risk.
• Therapy and counseling are an essential part of inpatient rehabilitation.
• It involves physical dependence and psychological cravings, leading to significant health and social problems.

A popular brand of the powerful painkiller oxycodone, OxyContin is a semi-synthetic opiate prescribed to relieve moderate to severe pain. It is prescribed to a wide range of individuals, from cancer patients to the physically injured. Taking OxyContin with other opioid medicines, benzodiazepines, alcohol, or other central nervous system depressants (including street drugs) can cause severe drowsiness, decreased awareness, breathing problems, coma, and death. Most often, medications like buprenorphine or methadone can be used to reduce the intensity of opioid withdrawal and are sometimes used long-term.

What Are The Treatment Options For Oxycontin Addiction?

Because of these risks, reserve concomitant prescribing of these drugs for use in patients for whom alternative treatment options are Alcoholics Anonymous inadequate. As an opioid, OXYCONTIN exposes users to the risks of addiction, abuse, and misuse. Because extended-release products such as OXYCONTIN deliver the opioid over an extended period of time, there is a greater risk for overdose and death due to the larger amount of oxycodone present see Drug Abuse And Dependence.

This medicine may cause sleep-related breathing problems (eg, sleep apnea, sleep-related hypoxemia). Your doctor may decrease your dose if you have sleep apnea (stop breathing for short periods during sleep) while using this medicine. It is against the law https://ecosoberhouse.com/ and dangerous for anyone else to use your medicine.

It is designed to make this challenging time easier and help you avoid an oxycodone relapse. In fact, it’s not uncommon for someone with a legitimate prescription to devolve into the early stages of opioid use disorder after just a few weeks of continuous use. Understand OxyContin side effects and dangers of the drug before you start taking it. In certain parts of the why is oxy so addictive country, the crackdown on illegal use of OxyContin has made it hard for pain patients to get legitimate prescriptions.