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Prescription Drugs

Methadone used as a prescription drug

January 27, 2012 – 5:06 pm

Methadone is a synthetic opioid which is used as an analgesic, antitussive or as anti-addictive for patients struggling to give up addiction to other opioid such as heroin and morphine which work on the same receptors. Therefore, it has many of the same effects and can similarly be used for managing chronic pain and has a very long duration of action and low cost. Therefore, it can be said that there are so many ways, where Methadone used as prescription drug. It can also be used alongside other drugs and for therapeutic effect, for example, cancelling out the effects of heroine.

Another method in which Methadone used as a prescription drug is that this drug comes in the form of injection, which is an excellent alternative for using dangerous and more powerful drugs with severe side effects. However this doesn’t mean that methadone is not without its own short comings and in fact it is very addictive itself and also carries various side effects with it. One should therefore be careful when considering the pros and cons of methadone injection for pain. It is not available over the counter like other prescription drugs and so it is often dealt illegally.

Methadone tablets Methadone used as a prescription drugMethadone is available as tablets or injections. The medium of taking it depends on the condition of the individual. Overdose or complication can result in severe side effects such as hepatitis or pneumonia. In case of overdose, patients experience prior difficulty breathing, muscle spasms, small pupils, bluish hued skin, constipation, slowed heart rate, lower blood pressure, drowsiness and eventually coma. If someone is having these symptoms, then he needs immediate medical attention. Hence, it can be said that when Methadone used as a prescription drug, then it should be administered carefully.

Methadone has all the side effects expected of all opioid such as heroin or morphine including potential physical and psychological dependence. Other side effects include hypotension, constipation, vomiting, vertigo, lethargy and edema. Women may also notice a loss of their regular period.

If there is addiction, then ‘coming off’ of methadone will prove difficult and it may result in many withdrawal symptoms. These may include pain, weakness, powerful craving, trembling, sweating and more. Some individuals have concluded that methadone is actually just as dangerous as heroin if not more so. It is always thought that all opioid should be considered the last line of defense against pain management and methadone pain management is no different.

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Preventing Abuse of Pain Medicine

October 9, 2011 – 5:11 am

Although most patients use medications as directed. Drug abuse and addiction to prescription drugs are common health problems for many persons. Therefore, preventing abuse of pain medicine is the prime concern for many persons.

Addiction rarely occurs among those who use medications as prescribed. The risk of addiction exists where medications are used without the doctor’s advice or in another ways than it is prescribed. Hence, preventing abuse of pain medicine only can happen, when one follows the prescription while taking pain killer medicines.

pain medicines Preventing Abuse of Pain MedicinePatients, pharmacists, and health care providers all play a vital role in detecting and preventing abuse of pain medicine. When treating pain, health care providers have long wrestled with a dilemma that is how to adequately relieve a patient’s suffering while avoiding the potential for that patient to become addicted to pain medication?

Many doctors under prescribe pain killers because they overestimate the potential for patients to become addicted to medications such as morphine and codeine. These drugs carry a heightened risk of addiction. Because these drugs act on the preceptor of the brain and transmit out the pain sensation from the body. Therefore, these drugs have a strong effect on brain.

 

Many researches has shown that providers’ are concerns about the patients so that they will not become addicted to pain medication. This fear of prescribing opioid pain medications is known as “opiophobia.”

Most patients who are prescribed with opioids for pain, even those undergoing long-term therapy, do not become addicted. The few patients who do develop rapid and marked tolerance for and addiction to opioids usually have a history of psychological problems or prior substance abuse.

In fact, studies have shown that abuse potential of opioid medications is generally not healthy, non drug abusing volunteers. One study has found that only 4 out of about 12,000 patients who were given opioids for acute pain become addicted to these medicines. In a study of 38 chronic pain patients, most of whom received opioids for 4 to 7 years, only 2 became addicted and had a history of drug abuse.

The issues of under prescription of opioids and the suffering of millions of patients who do not receive adequate pain relief, has led to the development of guidelines for pain treatment. This may help in bringing an end to under prescribing, but alternative forms of pain control are still needed. NIDA funded scientists are still searching for new ways to control pain and to develop new pain medications that are effective but don’t have the potential of addiction.

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Prescription Drugs

Difference between Vicodin and Hydrocodone

September 2, 2011 – 5:38 am

There is not practically much difference between Vicodin and hydrocodone. Both are pain reliever and used as analgesic. Vicodin is an effective pain reliever when used properly and for the short term. It is a tablet containing a combination of acetaminophen and hydrocodone. Hydrocodone was first synthesized in Germany in 1920 and was approved by the food and drug administration on 23 March in 1943. Hydrocodone or dihydrocodeinone is an opioid which is mainly combination of two opioids codeine and thebaine. It is commonly available in tablet, capsule and syrup form. Generally it is compounded with less effective non-opioid such as paracetamol.

Hydrocodone is most commonly used is as an intermediate centrally acting analgesic.as a narcotic, hydrocodone relieves pain by binding to opioid receptors in the brain and spinal cord. It is effective analgesic for mild to moderate pain control. 5 mg of hydrocodone is equivalent to 30 mg of codeine. In another comparison with morphine a dose of 15 mg of hydrocodone is equivalent to 10 mg of morphine.

Hydrocodone Tablets Difference between Vicodin and HydrocodoneHydrocodone is stronger than codeine but only one-tenth as potent as morphine. It is typically found in combination with other drugs paracetamol, aspirin, and ibuprofen and homatropine methyl bromide, to limit the intake of hydrocodone which causes unpleasant side effects. Dizziness, itching, lightheadedness, sweating, constipation euphoria are the common side effects. The symptoms of overdose of hydrocodone is as follows, respiratory depression, blue or cold skin, extreme somnolence, bradycardia, cardiac arrest etc.

Daily consumption of hydrocodone should not exceed 40 mg in patients. Overdose of this drug may effect on testosterone levels in many men and causes menstrual irregularities in women. In short term uses, it is not too much effective but in case of chronic uses it is dangerous. The patients who are under hydrocodone therapy are advised to be screened for such endocrinological problems periodically. Treatment should first consist of opioid rotation.

Vicodin addiction is an extremely powerful disease; however, with proper treatment Vicodin addiction can be overcome. Muscle and bone pain, night sweats, insomnia etc. are the symptoms of Vicodin addiction. Vicodin addiction is the obsessive-compulsive misuse of a mood altering drug. Vicodin addicts feel that they cannot longer function normally without the drug because overdose of this drug stops the brain from producing chemicals like endorphins.

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