What is Codeine?
tylenol with codeine is used to manage mild to moderate pain, where treatment with an opioid is appropriate, and when other pain treatments such as non-opioid pain medicines do not treat your pain well enough or you cannot tolerate them. Codeine is an opioid and considered a strong prescription pain medicine. It also has cough-suppressing (anti-tussive) properties.
Codeine is available as one of 2 salts: codeine or codeine phosphate:
- Codeine phosphate is highly water-soluble and used in oral liquids, tablets, and injections
- Codeine sulfate is less soluble and primarily used in tablet form
- Codeine sulfate tablets are the only single-ingredient codeine still available in the United States.
Side Effects
The possible side effects of codeine are constipation, nausea, sleepiness, vomiting, tiredness, headache, dizziness, and abdominal pain. Call your healthcare provider if you have any of these symptoms and they are severe.
Get emergency medical help or call 911 right away if you have:
- Trouble breathing, shortness of breath, fast heartbeat, chest pain, swelling of your face, tongue, or throat, extreme drowsiness, light-headedness when changing positions, feeling faint, agitation, high body temperature, trouble walking, stiff muscles, or mental changes such as confusion
- If you are a nursing mother taking codeine and your breastfeeding baby has increased sleepiness, confusion, difficulty breathing, shallow breathing, limpness, or difficulty breastfeeding.
These are not all the possible side effects of codeine. Call your healthcare provider for medical advice about side effects. You may report side effects to the FDA at 1-800-FDA-1088.
How do I Take Codeine/tylenol with codeine
Do not change your dose. Take codeine exactly as prescribed by your healthcare provider. Use the lowest dose possible for the shortest time needed.
- For acute (short-term) pain, you may only need to take codeine for a few days. You may have some codeine left over that you did not use. See disposal information at the bottom of this section for directions on how to safely throw away (dispose of) your unused codeine.
- Take your prescribed dose every 4 hours as needed for pain.
- Do not take more than your prescribed dose. If you miss a dose, take your next dose at your usual time.
Call your healthcare provider if the dose you are taking does not control your pain.
If you have been taking codeine regularly, do not stop taking codeine without talking to your healthcare provider.
Dispose of expired, unwanted, or unused codeine by taking your drug to an authorized DEA-registered collector or drug take-back program. If one is not available, you can dispose of codeine by mixing the product with dirt, cat litter, or coffee grounds; placing the mixture in a sealed plastic bag, and throwing the bag in your trash. Visit www.fda.gov/drugdisposal for additional information on disposal of unused medicines.
