Codeine and beyond

mellman01

Hi all what a difference a medication can make, for years Ive only been prescribed Codeine or Tramadol, Tramadol in my experience is horrible synthetic stuff that gave me nothing but nasty side effects whereas Codeine spaced me out and stopped me up something rotten but did next to nothing for my bone pain but last week after being ordered to go and see my GP (I'd not been to the surgery for over 2 years) I told the chap that Codeine isn't cutting the mustard so instead of telling me there's nothing they can give me he prescribed Oxycodeine, and my God what a difference, Id forgotten what a pain free life was like, it also doesn't bung me up half as much as codeine did, all it took was for me to look at the packet and that was it, Lastly a question, I understand its an opioid so has an addiction issue as does codeine but is it anymore addictive?, if so what warning signs should I look for regarding this matter?.


Mell

barbara12

Mell so glad you are getting some relief..about time if you ask me..but sorry I don't have a clue about Oxycodeine....hope you get some answers..in the meantime you enjoy

mellman01

Hi Barbara no I don't know much about it other than its an Opioid, the GP said something about it having twice as much effect as Codeine, I think I need to google it as I've got no replies on here other than yours so I guess its not that common, maybe my GP got it on the cheap, I wouldn't put it past the tight old duffer.

Boomer13

I haven't heard of oxycodeine, only oxycodone. I imagine it's stronger and like other opiates, you become tolerant to the effects over time. You need to increase or decrease doses gradually with doctor's direction.

Withdrawal if you become addicted feels like bad anxiety and like you have the 'flu with sweating/chills etc. It may become a problem if you take a high dose for a long time, in which case you don't want to stop taking it suddenly. If it's just a small dose you likely wouldn't have an addiction problem but you might become addicted to the feeling of less pain!

I would just check with your doctor regarding addiction problems and this medication. I think it's more of a problem with foolish people who take large qualities for the fun of it but that's just my unscientific, ordinary person-opinion.

Hope that helps.

dreamdaisy

I am glad you've found something that is helping but, as with all pain relief, your body will build a tolerance to it so you may find yourself increasing the dose to get the same feeling of relief. Pain is a fact of our lives, yes? DD

mellman01

Hi all yes its stronger than Codeine on the pain front but the fuzziness/high I get when I take them is about the same for the dose I take, 1x30mg Oxy and would take 3x30mg Codeine but the difference is these seem to work so much better, Codeine just use to space me out but the pain was still there but these have legs on them, I only need to take one and I get a good 2-3 hours of relief, they also don't bung me up like Codeine use to, just one 30mg Codeine and that was it, I also fully understand about the addiction issues with them so I restrict myself to the stated dose and right now I have one day on and one or more days off dependant on the level of pain, I also don't take any other Opioid pain killers when I do as it would simply make things iffy, bottom line is there's no such thing as a free lunch with pain so you have to accept at times you will suffer with a fair amount of it but its just nice to know I can have the odd day off, Basic Codeine didn't do anything other than bung me up and space me out big time. Same for Tramadol, I use to take 2 50mg of those and they did little for the pain but again spaced me out and gave me really bad moods so I stopped taking them because of it.

Boomer13

It's good you have found something to help! I have some strong ones too that really work. I don't take them very often but having them there is case of need has really helped me live with the pain better.

Sezeelson

Is it also known as oxycontin?

It's semi-synthetic so it's better then tramadol and codeine.
As it is an opiate, it's moderate to high risk in terms of dependence so only take it when you need it rather then to a schedule (if you can).

Withdrawal symptoms effect everyone differently, I had a horrific time coming off codeine. I was a wreck, much more then bad anxiety and flu like symptoms. I wasn't on a significantly high dose either. I was actually in a lot more pain while taking Codeine, I've not felt more mobile since I stopped taking Codeine! I can lift milk again which means I can have a morning cuppa! Life's little luxuries

Just don't want you falling into the same trap as I did, might be worth ending the opiates for 3 weeks to get it all out your system before taking the oxycodeine? You build a tolerance to opiates quite quickly too so make sure you have an opiate free day as regularly as you can manage.

mellman01

Hi Sezeelson thanks for the info, I've decided not to take them all the time only when the pain is bad, I understand about the addiction side of Opioids found that out with Codeine, you take it for a few days and it becomes weaker so you end up taking more, mind you just looking at the Codeine bottle bungs me up so thats an inhibiter for me, these tabs however don't seem to effect me in that area so I will have to watch things otherwise I could end up with a monkey on my back and a turkey by my side!. They are really effective though, I get good milage out of one 30mg whereas I could take as much Codeine as I liked and it didn't do much more than stop me up and space me out. As for Tramadol I hatred the stuff so many side effects I gave up on it totally.