What is hydrocodone?
hydrocodone side effects is a potent opioid used to manage severe and persistent pain that requires an extended treatment period with a daily opioid pain medicine, when other non-opioid pain medicines do not treat your pain well enough, or you cannot tolerate them.
It is available as long-acting, extended-release (ER) tablets (Hysingla ER, Zohydro ER [discontinued], generics) or in combination with acetaminophen or ibuprofen. Other combination hydrocodone medications that contain phenylephrine, pseudoephedrine, or phenylpropanolamine have been discontinued. is not available nor recommended for pediatric use.
Long-acting opioid pain medicines, such as bitartrate ER tablets, can put you at risk for overdose and death. Even if you take your dose correctly as prescribed, you are at risk for opioid addiction, abuse, and misuse that can lead to death
Important Information About hydrocodone side effects
Get emergency help or call 911 right away if you take too much (overdose). When you first start taking , when your dose is changed, or if you take too much (overdose), serious or life-threatening breathing problems that can lead to death may occur. Ask your healthcare provider about medicines like naloxone or nalmefene that can be used in an emergency to reverse an opioid overdose.
Taking hydrocodone with other opioid medicines, benzodiazepines, gabapentinoids (gabapentin or pregabalin), alcohol, or other central nervous system depressants (including street drugs) can cause severe drowsiness, decreased awareness, breathing problems, coma, and death.
Never give anyone else your hydrocodone. They could die from taking it. Selling or giving away hydrocodone is against the law.
Store hydrocodone securely, out of sight and reach of children, and in a location not accessible by others, including visitors to the home.
How do I Take hydrocodone side effects
Hydrocodone ER tablets should be taken 1 tablet at a time, once a day. Do not pre-soak, lick, or wet the tablet before placing it in your mouth to avoid choking on the tablet.
- Swallow hydrocodone ER tablets whole. Do not cut, break, chew, crush, dissolve, snort, or inject hydrocodone because this may cause you to overdose and die.
When taking hydrocodone:
- Do not change your dose. Take exactly as prescribed by your healthcare provider. Use the lowest dose possible for the shortest time needed.
- Take your prescribed dose of ER every 24 hours, at the same time every day. Do not take more than your prescribed dose in 24 hours. If you miss a dose, take your next dose at your usual time the next day.
- Call your healthcare provider if the dose you are taking does not control your pain.
- Do not stop taking ER tablets without talking to your healthcare provider.
What Should I Avoid ?hydrocodone side effects
While taking hydrocodone, DO NOT:
- Drive or operate heavy machinery until you know how hydrocodone affects you. hydrocodone can make you sleepy, dizzy, or lightheaded.
- Drink alcohol or use prescription or over-the-counter medicines that contain alcohol. Using products containing alcohol during treatment with hydrocodone may cause you to overdose and die.
Dosing information
It is safer to underestimate a patient’s 24-hour oral hydrocodone dosage and provide rescue medication (such as an immediate-release opioid) than to overestimate the 24-hour oral hydrocodone dosage and manage an adverse reaction due to an overdose.
Adult Dose Of Hydrocodone ER for Chronic Pain In Patients who are not Opioid Tolerant
- Initial dose: 20 mg orally every 24 hours
Adult Dose of Hydrocodone ER When Converting From Other Opioids
While useful tables of opioid equivalents are readily available, there is inter-patient variability in the potency of opioid drugs and opioid formulations. Frequently reevaluate patients for signs and symptoms of opioid withdrawal and for signs of oversedation/toxicity after converting patients to hydrocodone.
- See the Hydrocodone ER Prescribing Information for Conversion Dosage Information.
What happens if I overdose?hydrocodone side effects
Seek emergency medical attention or call the Poison Help line at 1-800-222-1222. A hydrocodone overdose can be fatal, especially in a child or other person using the medicine without a prescription. Overdose symptoms may include severe drowsiness, pinpoint pupils, slow breathing, or no breathing.
Your doctor may recommend that you get naloxone (a medicine to reverse an opioid overdose) and keep it with you at all times. A person caring for you can give the naloxone if you stop breathing or don’t wake up. Your caregiver must still get emergency medical help and may need to perform CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) on you while waiting for help to arrive.
Anyone can buy naloxone from a pharmacy or local health department. Make sure any person caring for you knows where you keep naloxone and how to use it.
What other drugs will affect hydrocodone side effects?
You may have breathing problems or withdrawal symptoms if you start or stop taking certain other medicines. Tell your doctor if you also use an antibiotic, antifungal medication, heart or blood pressure medication, seizure medication, or medicine to treat HIV or hepatitis C.
Opioid medication can interact with many other drugs and cause dangerous side effects or death. Be sure your doctor knows if you also use:
- cold or allergy medicines, bronchodilator asthma/COPD medication, or a diuretic (“water pill”);
- medicines for motion sickness, irritable bowel syndrome, or overactive bladder;
- other opioids – opioid pain medicine or prescription cough medicine;
- a sedative like Valium – diazepam, alprazolam, lorazepam, Xanax, Klonopin, Versed, and others;
- drugs that make you sleepy or slow your breathing – a sleeping pill, muscle relaxer, medicine to treat mood disorders or mental illness; or
- drugs that affect serotonin levels in your body – a stimulant, or medicine for depression, Parkinson’s disease, migraine headaches, serious infections, or nausea and vomiting.
This list is not complete. Other drugs may interact with hydrocodone, including prescription
