What is the difference between hydrocodone, oxycodone, and codiene?
Question posted by chronicpainhurts on 16 Feb 2010
Last updated on 30 July 2017 by scott1225
4 Answers
If you have built up a tolerance to codeine will you have a tolerance with Oxy because of this? I have been using Panadeine Forte with has 30mg of codeine per tablet and I now need to take 12 to 15 tablets at once to get them to work, what would the equivalent dosage of oxycodone be??
I know from experience that hydrocodone and oxycodone are much stronger then codiene
i can take 30 Mg of codiene with little effect. 30 MG of oxycdone or hydrocodone would put
me on my ass
I was always confused with medication differences especially with codeine /hydrocodone/oxycodone.
What I learned is this: Codeine being the lesser of the three as far as pain control is concerned. Codeine/Tylenol is the weakest of the three medications. Codeine is a natural opiate not man made (in a lab), they add the tylenol to increase the effectiveness of the drug, and reduce fever, and also can be added for anittussive reasons.
More often than not, people experience itching, and more frequent side effects from this drug. It can also be mixed with Aspirin, so it would be for example: APAP/Codeine #3, or it may be written as: Tylenol/Codeine #3, The number is the miligrams of codeine added, it starts with one and goes as high as four.
Hydrocodone can also be mixed with Tylenol or aspirin. Anywhere from 325mg of aspirin/to/500mg of aspirin. Hydrocodone is man made, and is much stronger than the codeine is. Oxycodone is also man made and will also have Aspirin/or/Tylenol added as a means to bump up the effectiveness of the narcotic Hydrocodone.
Oxycodone is even stronger, and can have Tylenol /or/Aspirin added.
The best way to say this is maybe, the "man made" drugs have a "ketone" added that binds to the receptors in your brain, thus making these two drugs much stronger than the natural occuring drug like codeine.
There are more "chemistry type" reasons these drugs are really not Technically in the "same" family. How they break down in our systems and what more is added to insure the strength. Albeit all three are controlled substances, and are called opiates.
I hope this helps a little bit to clarify the differences> I'm no expert, so I am sure the more seasoned people here will have an answer to help you also.
Keep reading all you can about your medications, knowledge is powerful, and may come in handy when you need pain control. You have a better understanding about what may help YOU best.
God Bless
IMPORTANT CORRECTION:
I know this post is old, but I wanted to point out one mistake with the post that might be dangerous if taken without question: Tylenol #3 does NOT have 3 mg of codeine. It has 30 (thirty) mg of codeine.
Please be careful.
The only thing I know is they are all in the same family of pain relief medication. Codeine in used for mild to moderate pain and the other 2 are for moderate to severe pain. That is the extent of what I know. Hope it is of some help
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osteoarthritis, pain, fibromyalgia, muscle pain, sciatica, hydrocodone, oxycodone
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