Hydrocodone Symptoms and Warning Signs
Opioids are safest when used for three or fewer days to manage serious pain, such as pain that follows surgery or a bone fracture. If you need opioids for severe pain, work with your healthcare professional to take the lowest dose possible, https://ecosoberhouse.com/ for the shortest time needed, exactly as prescribed. Also, be sure to ask if drugs other than opioids are available or if other types of treatment can be used instead. And don’t share your opioid medicines or take other people’s opioids.
How Naloxone Saves Lives in Opioid Overdose
An overdose of acetaminophen can damage your liver or cause death. Call your doctor at once if you have nausea, pain in your upper stomach, itching, loss of appetite, dark urine, clay-colored stools, or jaundice (yellowing of your skin or eyes). If you have withdrawal symptoms, tell your healthcare team right away. Follow all instructions about how to manage your withdrawal symptoms. A person with a one-day prescription has a 6% chance of still taking opioids a year later.
Vicodin Addiction: Symptoms, Overdose, and Treatment
- Concomitant use of benzodiazepines and opioids may result in profound sedation, respiratory depression, coma, and death.
- According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, these medications relieve drug cravings and prevent other withdrawal symptoms.
- During a thorough and detailed medical detoxification process, doctors and therapists evaluate the severity of the addiction and establish a plan to rid the body of the drug safely.
- If you are unsure whether a product contains acetaminophen, contact your doctor or pharmacist.
- Symptoms of Vicodin overdose include chest pain, bloody urine, trouble breathing, extreme drowsiness and changes in consciousness.
- Vicodin is a prescription painkiller developed for the relief of moderate to severe pain.
If you’ve successfully tapered off opioid medicine in the past, taking opioids for a brief time — with guidance from your healthcare professional — may be OK. But ask about all nonopioid pain medicine options to treat your pain, including the benefits and risks. Your healthcare professional may recommend that you have naloxone available to lower your risk of an overdose. Naloxone reverses the effects of opioids during an emergency if you stop breathing. Narcan and Revive are naloxone nasal sprays you can buy without a prescription. It’s important that your family members know how to use naloxone.
Signs of Vicodin Addiction
- If your doctor has prescribed this drug and you’re worried about addiction, talk about your concerns.
- Individuals who choose to utilize the drug illegally usually crush it themselves.
People often get hydrocodone and other opioids from family members or friends. In some cases, they steal opioids or purchase them from street dealers. But prescription drugs obtained on the street are often mixed with more powerful substances, such as fentanyl, that increase the risk of experiencing a fatal overdose. The drug is the active ingredient in many popular opioid brands, including Lortab, Lorcet and Vicodin.
Side Effects of Long-Term Vicodin Abuse
- People with substance use disorders should be screened for depression and other mental health issues.
- If you undergo detox at a treatment center like one of The Recovery Village’s professional facilities, your doctors and staff will attend to any physical or mental discomfort during this time.
- To combat possible overprescription, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has developed guidelines about when it is appropriate for doctors to prescribe opioids.
- The misuse of opioids — legal, illegal, stolen or shared — is the reason 90 people die in the U.S. every day on average, according to the American Society of Anesthesiologists.
- And eventually what happens is that the brain achieves new circuitry in the brain and is used to a certain amount of dopamine.
- Ask your healthcare team if you’re not sure when you can stop your opioid medicine.
When someone uses another central nervous system depressant at the same time, serious effects could occur. For example, combining Vicodin with alcohol or a benzodiazepine like Xanax can increase the chances of an overdose vicodin addiction occurring. If it’s possible someone is overdosing on Vicodin, emergency medical help should be sought immediately. When used correctly under a health care provider’s direction, prescription pain medicines are helpful.
How to tell if a loved one is misusing opioids
Opioid medicine can slow or stop your breathing, and death may occur. A person caring for you should give naloxone and/or seek emergency medical attention if you have slow breathing with long pauses, blue colored lips, or if you are hard to wake up. If you feel the need to manage withdrawal symptoms, talk to your healthcare team right away. Once your opioid taper starts and you’re taking a lower dose of opioids, you start to have a lower tolerance to opioids. If you suddenly take a higher dose of opioids, you’re at an increased risk of overdose. If a loved one is struggling with hydrocodone addiction, a good starting point is to identify a safe place and an appropriate time to speak with them and encourage them to seek treatment.
Some People Can Get Addicted by Accident
He is involved in training medical students and medical residents in opioid use disorder at Mayo Clinic. Dr. Lai is involved in healthcare policy within Mayo Clinic and at the state level, and lectures regularly across the country. It’s definitely difficult in that post-acute withdrawal syndrome time frame, 12 to 16 months. Dopamine is that neurotransmitter that makes us feel really good.
- You may be eager to reach your goal, but your body needs time to adjust to lower levels of opioids, and then to none at all.
- If you or your loved one is struggling with Vicodin misuse or addiction, it is important to know more about Vicodin, how addictive it can be, and what the signs of Vicodin addiction are.
- The hydrocodone in Vicodin is a synthetic opioid, which activates the same neurotransmitters as opiate drugs such as heroin.
