Re: Pain Meds and Addiction

[Guest guest]

> I have been on dilauded a form of morphine, then oxycontin both

> highly addictive substances for two months since my total knee

> replacement.

Can anybody tell me the difference between Vicodin and Dilauded? I have

major reconstructives come up in less than a month, and my doc is

recommending Vicodin. Which certainly works, I had them after my DS

surgery...but they make me ITCH. Hard to decide which is worse, pain or

itching. How would the Dilauded compare?

Thanks,

Michele B., Cols, Ohio

Failed VBG 1986

Revision - Open BPD/DS 7/14/00

Wt 320/161.5 BMI 50.2/25.8 -158.5 pounds

Dr. P. Maguire, Kettering OH

Self-pay

Brachioplasty, Mastopexy, Abdominoplasty, Lateral Trunk Excision - 12/8/01

Self-pay

http://hometown.aol.com/chezmich/index.html

[Guest guest]

At 1:31 PM -0500 11/13/01, chezmich@... wrote:

> > I have been on dilauded a form of morphine, then oxycontin both

>> highly addictive substances for two months since my total knee

>> replacement.

>

>Can anybody tell me the difference between Vicodin and Dilauded? I have

>major reconstructives come up in less than a month, and my doc is

>recommending Vicodin. Which certainly works, I had them after my DS

>surgery...but they make me ITCH. Hard to decide which is worse, pain or

>itching. How would the Dilauded compare?

Oxycontin is a timed-release form of oxycodone, or Percoset. Vicodin

is hydrocodone. I get pain relief from either, but find that Vicodin

gives me a nauseous headache followed by a terribly headachy

hangover, shild Percoset gives me only a mild hangover. Of course,

each of us reacts differently. I can't recall much about Dilaudid.

I think that I had it in '84 for my appendectomy, but I really do not

recall.

--Steve

--

[Guest guest]

When opoids (narcotics) are used over time the body develops

dependence on them. That is, there are withdrawal symptoms when the

medication is stopped or significantly decreased, and there is

tolerance-- the ability to take more over time with less effect. This

is biological dependence and is unrelated to abuse of drugs.

Abuse must be present for addiction to be diagnosed.

Taking medications as prescribed for the purpose for which they are

precribed is not addiction. When a person starts to take more than

prescribed, seek the feelings or numbness or high or rush that are a

side effect of the drug, take the drug to prevent withdrawal, or be

unwilling to taper down when the condition for which they are

prescribed is improved, *then* we worry about addcition.

It is important for patients to know that slipping from properly

using medications into addiction is always a possibility. Patients

who are *not* concerned about this worry me the most. I see this a

lot with people put on benzos such as xanax, ativan, etc for

anxiety. These are some of the most addicting medications we have.

/Seattle