Oxycodone Addiction and Treatment
Oxycodone addiction can be very dangerous, as the prescription opioid can lead to serious withdrawal symptoms. Learn more and seek recovery at DrugHelp.
Oxycodone is an opiate pain reliever that’s only available by prescription. It is classified as a controlled substance due to its high potential for abuse and addiction. It’s prescribed to patients who suffer from medical and health-related pain. Even though oxycodone is a commonly prescribed painkiller, many people believe it’s unsafe.
Unfortunately, oxycodone has a high risk of addiction. This not only applies to people suffering from pain, but also to those who use oxycodone recreationally. Those who wish to recover from their oxycodone addiction must undergo physical detox to prevent withdrawal symptoms. Oxycodone affects the body by providing pain relief and sedation, but it can also cause respiratory depression, constipation, papillary constriction, and cough suppression as part of its physiological effects.
Misuse or addiction to this substance can lead to a clinical condition known as oxycodone use disorder, which involves behavioral and physiological issues related to ongoing abuse.
Oxycodone is part of the broader class of drugs known as opioids, which are used for pain management. The effects of oxycodone include pain relief, euphoria, sedation, and, at higher doses or misuse, risks such as impaired driving, overdose, and respiratory depression. Opiate drugs work by reducing nerve activity. This results in pain. Opiates can diminish your pain by binding to multiple receptors in the brain and throughout your nervous system.
Oxycodone is most commonly available in tablet form, with both immediate-release and controlled-release tablets offering different durations of effect. The dangers of opioids come from the risk of tolerance. In order for the medication to work, you need to continue increasing your dose. When opioids like oxycodone are taken repeatedly over time, the body produces fewer endorphins, leading to increased tolerance and a higher risk of addiction.
Fortunately, doctors can prescribe a specific dosage that prevents addiction. But this doesn’t mean patients can’t get hooked and start buying their medication illegally.
How is Oxycodone Taken?
When used as prescribed, oxycodone is taken orally. Whether or not the prescription increases depends on the pain the patient is experiencing. If the minimum dose isn’t working, doctors may increase the dosage. For slight or temporary pain, the doctor will increase a moderate dose and will wean you off the medication to avoid withdrawal symptoms.
Taking oxycodone recreationally is a very different situation. The user may not experience pain they want to decrease; rather, they solely seek the experience of getting high. Taking opiates can enhance feelings of euphoria, similar to heroin use.
The recreational user will usually administer oxycodone in a way that gives them the most euphoria. Recreational users may also swallow the tablet. But to get the best high, they will crush and snort the tablet or dilute the crushed tablet in water and inject it into their veins.
Who Takes Oxycodone?
Many oxycodone users never even engaged in drug use prior to using oxycodone. But this doesn’t mean they’re not at risk for addiction. Their tolerance can increase, forcing doctors to increase their prescription. Not all doctors are willing to increase a prescription due to addiction. That’s when the user will start buying oxycodone on the streets.
The other oxycodone user group includes those who use oxycodone recreationally to get high. They will also buy their pills from the street because they don’t have a medical condition to qualify for a prescription. Some individuals may steal oxycodone from family members, friends, or even pharmacies and drugstores to fuel their substance abuse. Oxycodone substance abuse can result in serious consequences such as job loss, financial ruin, legal issues, and strained relationships.
A Brief History of Oxycodone
However, overprescribing of oxycodone is considered to be one of the leading causes for the beginnings of the (still ongoing) United States opioid addiction crisis of the 2000s. It was reported that prescriptions for oxycodone for conditions apart from cancer rose by 588% between 1998 and 2007.
Pharmaceutical companies started overprescribing these medications, even when very little was known about the side effects, dangers, and addiction risk. Deaths due to opioid overdose began to be observed in the 1990s. The rise in synthetic opioids only contributed to the rise in tragedies.
Oxycodone is now recognized as a Schedule II controlled substance in the United States, due to its high potential for abuse and its significant role in fueling the opioid epidemic.
Consequences of Oxycodone Abuse
Oxycodone addiction is clinically recognized as an opioid use disorder, a medical condition involving problematic patterns of oxycodone use leading to significant impairment or distress. But it was originally prescribed to help people cope with severe pain, and it is undeniably effective at doing this.
The medical effects of oxycodone include pain relief, sedation, feelings of euphoria, and respiratory depression. While these therapeutic effects are the reason for its prescription, they also contribute to its high potential for misuse and addiction. This makes oxycodone comparable to the opioid fentanyl, which is prescribed in medical settings to alleviate treatment-resistant pain (usually having to do with cancer) and for easing the pain of childbirth.
Substance abuse of oxycodone can have severe health and social consequences. Long-term opioid use can alter brain structure, reduce the ability to feel pleasure naturally, and may lead to cognitive decline.
Oxycodone comes with many unwanted side effects. These may include:
- Fever
- Chills
- Nausea
- Skin rash
- Dizziness
- Dark urine
- Bad breath
- Black stools
- A headache
- Stomachache
- Loss of appetite
- Vomiting blood
- Tiredness and weakness
- Yellowing of the eyes or skin
Over time, the body adapts to repeated opioid use and develops an increased physical tolerance to its effects. Over time, this results in physical dependence. This makes it harder to stop using substances like oxycodone without experiencing withdrawal symptoms. It’s understandable that people might relapse into drug abuse simply to experience relief from the highly uncomfortable (and sometimes potentially fatal) effects of withdrawal.
But even apart from the cycle of addiction, oxycodone can cause long-term physical damage. Oxycodone users are at risk of developing kidney and liver failure. Extended use of oxycodone products that contain acetaminophen (such as Percocet) can cause severe liver damage due to the toxic effects of overusing acetaminophen. This risk increases if you use oxycodone with alcohol.
The biggest risk in using oxycodone is respiratory depression, or the experience of breathing slowing down to a fatal degree. These are signs of respiratory depression (and that someone may be overdosing on oxycodone or another opioid):
- The person falls unconscious
- Blue lips and skin
- Low pulse
- Slow breath
- Low pulse
If someone using oxycodone presents these symptoms, call 911 and seek medical help immediately. Most locations in the United States have Good Samaritan laws that protect those who bring others experiencing overdose to medical treatment centers, even if the person themselves has been using addictive substances.
Using Oxycodone With Other Drugs
Which Drugs Are Commonly Used With Oxycodone?
Oxycodone is commonly used by younger people at parties. They may drink alcohol and/or take oxycodone with other prescription drugs in “pharm parties.” Benzodiazepines (also known as benzos) or other drugs like cocaine may appear in these settings.
Stages of Oxycodone Addiction Recovery
Oxycodone abuse is on the rise. Those who suffer from pain may get hooked on their prescription, increasing their tolerance and forcing them to take larger doses. In time, they may transition to harder substances like heroin. Seeking professional help is strongly recommended to safely manage healing from oxycodone addiction.
Medical detox is the first stage of treatment for oxycodone addiction. It is centered on the person healing in a supervised environment where withdrawal symptoms can be managed safely and effectively, reducing the risk of complications and relapse during the initial phase of recovery.
Treatment for opioid use disorder typically involves a combination of medication-assisted treatment (MAT) and behavioral therapies. FDA-approved medications such as buprenorphine (a partial opioid agonist that reduces cravings and withdrawal symptoms without producing a high), methadone, and naltrexone (an opioid antagonist that blocks the effects of opioids) are considered the gold standard for treating opioid use disorder.
Behavioral therapies can play a crucial role in long-term recovery. Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) helps individuals identify and change negative thinking patterns related to drug use. Counseling provides support for developing coping strategies and addressing mental health concerns. Contingency Management uses tangible rewards to incentivize meeting recovery goals, such as maintaining a clean drug test record. Group and peer support programs like Narcotics Anonymous offer community and shared experiences that can be vital for long-term recovery that lasts beyond formal treatment.
Get Help
Getting Help For Oxycodone Addiction
If you’re addicted to oxycodone and need help to stop taking oxycodone safely, locate drug addiction treatment services near you now.
Jessica Granata is a board-certified Family and Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner in Palm Beach County, FL. She has served as a Nursing faculty member, teaching courses at both the graduate and undergraduate levels, and has been a preceptor, training numerous Nurse Practitioner and Physician Assistant students from several universities. She has 20 years of experience working in mental health and substance abuse treatment.