Vicodin Addiction: Abuse, Symptoms, Treatment and Recovery
Be sure your doctor knows if you also take medicine for depression, mental illness, Parkinson’s disease, migraine headaches, serious infections, or prevention of nausea and vomiting. Ask your doctor before making any changes in how or when you take your medications. An overdose of acetaminophen can damage your liver or cause death. Call your doctor at once if you have nausea, pain in your upper stomach, itching, loss of appetite, dark urine, clay-colored stools, or jaundice (yellowing of your skin or eyes). Help prevent opioid misuse in your family and community by storing opioid medicines securely while you use them.
Symptoms of Vicodin Addiction
As you support your loved one, don’t forget to take care of yourself. Recovery is difficult and can be draining for everyone involved. Helping yourself will ensure you can be there for your loved one. Lortab is a brand name version of hydrocodone similar to brands Norco® and Lorcet®. You can also talk to your doctor about alternative ways to reduce pain. For example, a 2015 report by Harvard University stated that yoga can alleviate pain caused by arthritis, fibromyalgia and other conditions.
Take Back Your Life From Hydrocodone Addiction
- In 2012, nearly 1 million people received treatment for their addiction to prescription painkillers.
- They said the agency is “working with U.S. Customs and Border Protection to help stop imports of tianeptine.”
- At first, the addictive potential of opioids like Vicodin was not clearly understood.
- These are typically prescribed to manage moderate to severe pain on a short-term basis.
- Even when taken at recommended doses, Vicodin can result in addiction.
- Quitting these medicines suddenly can cause serious withdrawal symptoms, including pain that’s worse than it was before you started taking opioids.
Your healthcare team can help you gradually and safely reduce the amount of opioids you take. Individuals with hydrocodone use disorders are at high risk of damaging opioid receptors in the brain, which affect how the brain manages responses to pain. Numerous studies have reported that individuals who have a history of long-term opioid use are much more likely to experience intense pain. After years of opioid abuse, many people have a heightened sensitivity to pain. This results in needing longer periods of time to recover from an injury or surgery and experiencing intense cravings to use hydrocodone to relieve chronic pain.
- Vicodin may contain 5 milligrams of hydrocodone and 325 milligrams of acetaminophen or as much as 10 milligrams of hydrocodone and 660 milligrams of acetaminophen.
- Ask your healthcare team if you’re not sure when you can stop your opioid medicine.
- Vicodin addiction treatment typically begins with detoxification to rid the body of the drug and its toxins.
- When prescribed by a medical professional, the drug comes as a tablet or an oral liquid.
- This prescription painkiller is a combination of hydrocodone and the active ingredient in Tylenol.
Not sure if your medication is considered an opioid?
In the U.S., find the closest Controlled Substance Public Disposal Locations on a website the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) maintains. Or contact your local law enforcement vicodin addiction agency or your trash and recycling service for information about local medicine takeback programs. If no takeback program is available in your area, ask your pharmacist for help.
Prescription Opioid and Hydrocodone Addiction Treatment
Additionally, the combination can cause drowsiness, dizziness, confusion and slurred speech. Please consult your doctor — even if they prescribed both together — before ingesting Vicodin and Valium. At first, the addictive potential of opioids like Vicodin was not clearly understood. Vicodin, in fact, used to be a Schedule III controlled substance and was not made a Schedule II controlled substance until 2014. Even now, some doctors may prescribe more Vicodin than a person needs to ensure that pain is well-controlled. To combat possible overprescription, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has developed guidelines about when it is appropriate for doctors to prescribe opioids.
Vicodin contains the active ingredients hydrocodone and acetaminophen. Both substances can be dangerous in high doses, and taking too much Vicodin can lead to an overdose. If your doctor has prescribed this drug and you’re worried about addiction, talk about your concerns. If you have a personal or family history of substance use disorders, an alternative pain reliever may be a better option for you. If your doctor prescribes hydrocodone for you, you can take steps to avoid serious complications from hydrocodone addiction.
- Treatment plans can consist of one-on-one, group and recreational therapy.
- Products containing acetaminophen are widespread and often available over-the-counter, including Tylenol and cough, cold and flu treatments.
- “However, tianeptine was not implicated as a cause of death for this case (the case involved multiple other substances that were implicated in the cause of the death).”
- Don’t stop opioid medicines without help from a healthcare professional.
- The opioid antagonist Narcan (naloxone) can block the effects of opioids and reverse an overdose.