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OxyContin's 12-hour problem

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Re: OxyContin's 12-hour problem

#71
post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I fractured my tibia recently and the urgent care gave me a short prescription for Percocet (which contains oxycodone like Oxycontin and also acetaminophen). I didn't end up picking it up as I don't have a car and mobility is understandably limited when you've fractured your tibia, but the past the first day the pain wasn't bad enough to need it anyway, and ibuprofen sufficed. And I am a wimpy person who does not do…

In a similar vein, I got an entire bottle of vicodin prescribed to me after having Lasik surgery. There was virtually no pain, merely discomfort similar to having a dirty contact lens in your eye, which went away after a day. I never used any of the vicodin.

I don't get this mentality at all. I would guess a majority of adults in the US have had Vicodin or similar and I don't know anyone personally who ever got addicted.

In some it causes nausea. You don't like it, fine. But I don't understand how people can be so pro marijuana on one hand, and so anti-opiates on the other. It's pain. It's not noble to suffer needlessly.

It's complete BS that it's harder for a dentist to prescribe a dozen Vicodin after a root canal these days. Or that many doctors will try to pass off 800mg of ibuprofen as a substitute for Vicodin for throwing you back out. That turns a couple of days of "be careful and taken it easy" into a couple of days of laying around on the couch in pain instead.

These drugs are inexpensive, very effective for short term pain management, and the vast majority of people have mild to no side effects, and almost no one has an addiction issue from using them.

It feels like the modern equivalent of Reefer Madness.

Re: OxyContin's 12-hour problem

#72
Even though companies like Purdue deal in the realm of health and wellbeing, they have no interest in either, only in profit. Profit that may come at the expense of health and wellbeing, while appearing otherwise.

Re: OxyContin's 12-hour problem

#73
post #7

The pervasiveness of OC provided by doctors is amazing. Even as of a year ago, I went into the hospital for back pain and left with a script for two fist fulls of oxy. I looked at the doctor and legitimately thought he was trying to get me hooked. And this was at a world renowned hospital. I have to wonder if Purdue is involved in some kickbacks to Dr's who (over)prescribe.

It seems to be very rare to prescribe opioids for self-administration in the UK. One friend of mine was given some sort of opioid (i forget which) after having surgery on his leg. But for everyone else, diclofenac seems to be the thing that GPs like to spray everywhere.

Re: OxyContin's 12-hour problem

#74
A perfect storm:

- Corporate misinformation pushing a significant set of users on a repeated and addiction forming schedule.

- Morphine (one of the proven and cheaper alternatives) perceived as problematic / cancer drug

- Doctors having less hassle and financial incentive to prescribe OC on q12 schedule than alternatives

- shame on user side and war on drugs policies that make it hard to reach out for help

The good news is that the internet makes it harder to spin misinformation over the long run.

Re: OxyContin's 12-hour problem

#75

A perfect storm: - Corporate misinformation pushing a significant set of users on a repeated and addiction forming schedule. - Morphine (one of the proven and cheaper alternatives) perceived as problematic / cancer drug - Doctors having less hassle and financial incentive to prescribe OC on q12 schedule than alternatives - shame on user side and war on drugs policies that make it hard to reach out for help The good n…

I have generally found that the internet is a double-edged sword. The information available makes it much easier to find information supporting ones cause and thus reinforcing it, even if that cause is ludicrous.

Re: OxyContin's 12-hour problem

#76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Medically reasonable alternatives have been on the market since 1950 (hydrocodone for example). Patents didn't drive the use of Oxycontin. The article is even about the supposed justification of choosing Oxycontin, the 12 hour dosing, not being sufficient or even harmful.

Your dismissiveness is unwarranted and wrong. The whole reason the drug was developed because their patent on their current flagship drug was expiring. It's right there in the article. Oxycontin is essentially hydrocodone with a time-release mechanism. You need to demonstrate significant distance from existing medication in order to get a new patent. The entire debacle, soup to nuts, was driven by the patent system.…

OxyContin is oxycodone, which is actually a good deal stronger than hydrocodone.

Re: OxyContin's 12-hour problem

#77
post #14
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In many other countries, pain is treated without highly addictive opioids. Only in the US are they available at that scale.

Can you give me some examples or pointers to websites? I am interested in alternative pain treatments, because my condition still gives me a fair amount of pain, and I am open to trying new things :)

HAVE YOU ASKED YOUR DOCTOR?????

doctors are full of alternatives, but people loooooove opioids so that's what they prescribe. people also think doctors always make the best decisions, but that's horseshit, they commonly make terrible decisions because they're overworked and their patients are terrible at communicating.

the last time i went in for pain they immediately offered me opioids, i said nope and LO, AND BEHOLD, an alternative was immediately offered.

and GUESS WHAT, they were SUPER CHEAP. hmmmmmm....

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ketorolac https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methylprednisolone

Re: OxyContin's 12-hour problem

#78
Really the duration can vary quite a lot. I was put under on fentanyl for having my wisdom teeth taken out and woke up in the middle of the operation in extreme pain as someone was digging my teeth out with a metal instrument. I moaned at him, through a mouth stuffed with gauze pads, to get the fuck off me and let me out of there if he wasn't giving me more meds. He proceeded to angrily accuse me of taking dope, which I had, quite a few times, but never that much, in high school a few years before. I had already explained this before the procedure and assumed they had adjusted the dose. Explaining this again, with tears of pain rolling down my face, the nurse told me it's okay and, I assume out of some attempt to comfort me, that she'd taken dope too. They gave me the fentanyl and I passed out again. My opiate use in high school was infrequent and I'd never experienced withdrawals in the slightest, though I'd say I probably took a double or triple dose a few times, mostly because it never seemed to do that much for me. I was probably 16 when I started my experimentation and it ended by the time I was 17. Freshman year of college I was suffering stomach pain and headaches, so the doc at school prescribed Reglan and a small amount of Vicodin. Painkillers for a headache? By the end of the next day I had taken them all, in total 25mg Hydrocodone spread out over a day and a half. I take ibuprofen for headaches anyway. That was probably 8-12 months before my wisdom teeth procedure, but somehow either that one time recently or the times I took opiates in high school years before were enough for the fentanyl to wear off and for me to get yelled at by a doctor for it. I can't figure out if I always had a high tolerance or if opiate tolerance never goes away. I'm looking at this chart of equivalent potency https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equianalgesic and it seems like I probably took the equivalent of a 15 mg oxycontin at the highest dosage I ever took, 22.5mg Hydrocodone, so it's really a mystery to me why I would have an effect like that. In my opinion, the problem here is that a higher dose was recommended instead of a longer acting opioid. However, I think people should always research their medication and talk to their pharmacist. I never took the Reglan because there's a risk of Parkinsons. My friend was prescribed a huge dose of antidepressants and ended up in the hospital with serotonin syndrome. Doctor knows best is a lie when it comes to medication. Pharmacist knows best. Always ask the pharmacist.

Re: OxyContin's 12-hour problem

#79

Really the duration can vary quite a lot. I was put under on fentanyl for having my wisdom teeth taken out and woke up in the middle of the operation in extreme pain as someone was digging my teeth out with a metal instrument. I moaned at him, through a mouth stuffed with gauze pads, to get the fuck off me and let me out of there if he wasn't giving me more meds. He proceeded to angrily accuse me of taking dope, whic…

I woke up when I was having my wisdom teeth extracted but promptly went back to sleep when they suggested it.

My recollection is that I was briefly aware of them working in my mouth but not in any pain.

Re: OxyContin's 12-hour problem

#80
post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You mean libel. Slander is spoken, libel is written. The easy way to remember this distinction is to know that one of the most famous libel cases in history, nicknamed the "McLibel" case, concerned printed pamphlets.

Another way to remember is that "library" and "libel" both come from "liber", meaning "book" in Latin

As does "lb.", the abbreviation for pound.
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