Oxycodone's Deathly Issue (Page 3)
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I've been using Oxycodone for five years for pain management. I read about all the deaths that were associated with this drug which were being attributed to intentional over medications by patients in order to get high. I discovered by pure accident that there appears to be a major flaw in this pill's ability to consistently breakdown in the human system like it is intended to do, especially in the time release tablet. As the pill fails to breakdown and release it's medication, they begin to build up dangerous levels within the upper gastrointestinal track. They eventually do release into your system, but not when you planned for it, and sometimes many stored pills open at one time and dump into your system all at once. It could look like an intentional overdose to those who don't know about this issue. Has anyone else noticed that sometimes they feel like they never even took their pain pill? Or has anyone else noticed that every once in a while they seem to get super loaded for no known cause every once in a while? I discovered this issue when I went in for a colon test and after six hours of cleaning out my whole system, I began to notice at the very end that about fifteen oxycodone pills, fully intact, began to pass through my system from the upper gastrointestinal tract. The actual test showed that there were still five more left in my upper gastrointestinal tract. Nothing else in my whole system but those pills stuck inside me. I tried to inform the manufacture, but they did not want to hear what I had discovered. Meanwhile, they continue to blame all deaths related to Oxycodone to addicts who purposely took too many pills to get high. User's beware. I like to hear from anyone else who have noticed some of the oddities I've mentioned about this drug, especially if they have a reason to believe they too had a pill build up.

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PS. I must warn you that there are days when I don't know if I'm coming or going because essentially I am constantly in the act of trying to balance out my medications as they wax and wane along with the tides. So please forgive me if I ramble along or become unusually critical of what ever gets caught in my web that day.

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Hi Michael,
I'm glad your interested in this idea. So what should we write about that would capture the interest of patients in chronic pain and the use of pharmacology products vs side effects? So where is the river forth? Your turn.

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I wish... we have a lovely view over the River Forth at one side and the largest petro-chemical complex in Europe on the other (to which my late father, a doctor, atributed the high rate of asthma, leukaemia and other nasties in this area).
YES. I think a new thread intertwining all aspects of healthcare, especially those of us with multi-faceted ilnesses, is a great idea, and let's leave this one for the oxycodone issue. Over to you, Ginny!

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Since I've gone off the main topic twice now, here is my third diversion. I have too many health issues, and too much pain that mess with my daily life. However, there is one thing that I've found that always makes me feel better. Five years ago I bought a small house that sits on the shores of a San Fransisco Bay inlet. Everyday I can sit here at my computer, when I hurt, and watch the incredible life of shore birds which live, hunt and migrate beyond my windows. Too bad they can't make a pill like that for everyone who is hurting and ill. Right now I'm watching a Night Heron and a Great White Heron cleaning their feathers on my boat dock while about four canvas back ducks hunt for food in the water nearby. Smooth thoughts for all in pain today.

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Good Afternoon Michael & Others,
Yes, we both have made postings that no longer pertain to the initial subject matter. This only demonstrates our desire to peel back the layers of mystery surrounding the pharmacology industry and medical fields which are intricately intertwined in our daily lives. Why indeed do they do some of the things they do, when they know the cure is frequently worse than the illness? A very good question and hopefully an observation other frequent users of the medical field have taken notice by now. Maybe we could start a new thread and start it with a lead in question like Questionable uses of Pharmacology products? This could open the door to all kinds of discussions which are related, including how dependent Doctor's have become on prescriptions to treat patients when they know too little about the actual clinical studies. What do you think?

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I think I should also bring to the attention of readers the current policy of switching patients with severe anxiety/panic problems, like myself who has suffered this syndrome for 30+ years, from benzodiazepines onto SSRIs, whic are essentially anti-depressants which they say help people with these panic issues. Well last year I was put on one of these, citalopram, and far from helping, I suffered constant 24/7 anxiety, and at least one full-blown panic attack per day. The doctor persuaded me to try and persist with this drug, but I could not stand it any more after only six or seven days' treatment. I have never felt so bad in my life; much worse than any anxiety-related symptoms I have ever experienced. Right from the first pill. Needless to say, I have now reverted to a drug, alprazolam, which actually works well as a preventative and keeps my anxiety at bay. My dose has been cut and I am only taking 2.25mg/day, but that appears to be just enough to be effective. Since strting alprazolam, I have suffered far less panics than before, and I have been through a LOT of the benzodiazepines over the years. I did a little research and found that these SSRIs actually work in only about 50% of patients at most, and at least 25% reported what I experienced - a dreadful worsening of the symptoms of this disease (for anxiety and panic syndrome is certainly a disease). Why then, in the face of these statistics, does it appear to be becoming official policy to prescribe more SSRIs to people who suffer the same illness as me? Off-topic again, but no more so than the antibiotic debate. Has anybody else here been through the same attempts at switching drugs for anxiety and panic syndrome?

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Good word, FLOXED! I think the first-mentioned antibiotic there is available, and has been for some time, under the name CIPROXEN; these reports are not new, in fact I remember reading about unwanted side-effects with Ciproxen quite a while ago now. But you are right to bring it to people's attention again, because these reports were not long after they were introduced as the 'new wave' of antibiotics, which were supposed to counter the immunity the human race had developed to more traditional and older antibiotics like penicillin, amoxycillin, flucloxacillin etc. Whether they are so bad as to be described as being 'dangerous' is still a moot point; but certainly there are a lot of people who react quite badly to this group of drugs.

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PATIENT'S BEWARE: Although this is not about Oxycontin, I feel a need to warn those of us who are already have enough pain in our daily lives. There is a whole class of antibiotics on the market that are taking a painful tole on those who have used them. The drug's side effects are being referred to as being FLOXED. Check them out, you won't believe what these drugs are doing to people who have used them for something as simple as a sinus infection and as short as one day! The side effects are ruining peoples lives. Just two names within this drug group are Cyprofloxaein and Levantine. They are widely prescribed and words commonly being associated with this group of drugs are deadly and poisonous.

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Just a note to all about a major error I made regarding the exact pill I was using. My first posting repeatedly used the name Oxycodine vs Oxycontin. I was using Oxcontin when I first discovered this pill breakdown issue, and when I discovered recently that they did not breakdown as they should have by accident, I was again using Oxycontin. Some have asked if it makes me extremely sleepy after using it. Absolutely it has at times. However, some times I feel as though I've taken five times my normal dosage and have actually fallen asleep while I was in the middle of eating! I'm not having this issue as much as I did last year, but I've cut back by 20mg since then. Still...

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Dear Michael and Others:
My last post asked others to experiment with a few of their Oxycontin/Oxycodine pills to see if they are breaking down in the time frame we've been led to believe they will. I've since read up on this medication and found that it is water soluble and has the same molecular structure as heroin. I was never told this when I was put on it for pain. In a four year period between 1996 and 2000, there was a 400% increase in deaths attributed to this drug, and this didn't
include many thousands of ER deaths that could not be confirmed Oxy deaths due to other RX's within the patients system. This is a 7 year old study! Of course the manufactures are claiming that all of these deaths are caused by patients or street users breaking or crushing the pill to get a fast high. I strongly am beginning to suspect that they may have a delivery system issue that is not being disclosed and is easy to hide because most pain patients use other medications concurrently. I've informed my husband to make sure that if I die from an overdose to have the autopsy check to see how many un-desolved Oxy pills are found in my system. I can see how easy it would be to tell my loved ones that I died from an overdose because I had taken too many pills at one time and blaa, blaa, blaa, They would buy that story too if I had never discussed this break down issue with them in detail and shown them some proof. After all, I do take many medications for pain. I've been very slowly reducing the dosage I have been using daily for over a year. I found this difficult, but far from impossible if done slowly and replaced with other pain killers. I've reduced 20mg's in one year. I can't believe that I'm essentially addicted to heroin at 55 yr's old! Michael, whatever your pain level calls for, don't crush or break these pills. Sooner or later it will claim your life and you will just be labeled as another addict who was seeking a quick high. I'm sure that would piss you off knowing that you were only treating your pain level with a prescribe RX. It would for me. I am using Oxycontin at this time, not a generic. I can't wait to hear what your results are from your experimental test on these pills. Who knows, maybe our combined efforts could lead to uncovering a hidden defect. I know how hard it is to give up a few pain pills to do the test, but maybe we will save our own lives, and others, if we discover that this is a real issue. Good Luck to us all.

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Oh, and Ginny, I will try your experiment with four or five of the original brand OxyContin. Is oxycodone itself water-soluble? I don't know. But I will do that and report back on my findings for you.

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Ginny; I was wondering if you ALWAYS swallow your OxyContin whole? When my arthritis gets really bad I find that biting through the tablet (name-brand of course) helps a lot. The effect comes on so much quicker and is a lot stronger; but the time-release mechanism of the original tablets still operates to a degree. I mean it isn't like taking 40mg oxycodone all at once. I wouldn't think you could do that with the American generics, which do not use the m/r system that original NAPP OxyContin does. I find that biting in half reduces the time of effective action to about five or six hours, but it's worth doing if you are bad enough. Remember it's the time-release method that makes branded OxyContin so expensive, so I certainly wouldn't risk doing that with a generic with a standard m/r delivery system. To release all 40mg of a NAPP tablet you would have to crush it into fine powder before taking it and that would be dangerous indeed. Needless to say, I am glad that generics are not allowed here yet. I know how my body handles the ones I get. I found out that OxyNorm, the instant-release form, is SO much cheaper. A box of OxyContin costs GBP£198 (about US$400) for 40mg tablets but a box of OxyNorm costs only £30 ($62) for the 20mg strength.

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I last wrote that I was hopeful that I hoped the manufactures of Oxycontin had fixed any issues that they may have had with the pill not breaking down as intended within the body. However, two days ago I had about five of my Oxycontin tablets, along with other medications, in a pill container that became totally immersed in water. I didn't discover it till a day later. All the other medications had dissolved completely but three of the five oxycontin tablets were in various stages of breaking down,still not dissolved after 72 hours, and only two of the Oxycontin tablets actually were dissolved. Scary to even consider. We should all do our own little experiment to see how long it takes one or several of our pills to actually dissolve. If any one does do this, please post your outcome for the rest of us to read. Thanks.

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I should have said, that was in reply to Eric, who was wondering about NAPP Pharmaceuticals. Yes, they are the makers of the original brand-name OxyContin.

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NAPP are the patent-holder and the original brand-name manufacturer of OxyContin and OxyNorm. Also of MST Continus (known in the USA as MS Contin). So what you are getting is the original branded drug.

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Donna,
I'm responding to your posting which assumed that I had a stomach problem because I underwent testing on my GI track. The reason for the testing was because I had been diagnosed with breast cancer and the Doctor was checking my whole body for the possibility of it spreading to other areas. Fortunately it had not. Since the first posting I made about this drug, I've run into another issue with a generic version of this drug. My pharmacy switched me to a generic form that caused some serious stomach aches when I took it. The following month I requested only the brand form of the drug and the stomach issues went away. Unfortunately, the extra cost for the brand name is costing me a small monthly fortune due to a clause in my prescription insurance which mandates that I must accept generic form when it's available or else I pay the difference between the brand name and generic pills. What a rip off. This is the second generic form of a medication that has caused stomach problems for me and the payment for the brand names are eating up an extra 100.00 per month. One has to wonder what goes into the generic drugs that could cause such a physical problem for a patient and create such a substantial price difference between the same medication? Does anyone know how to get around the insurance penalty for requiring a brand drug because the generic makes you ill?

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And I was told that the time-release system was absolutely state of the art; the most perfect ever devised. I refer of course to original brand-name, which is all we can get in UK due to patent law, no generics will be allowed until 2016. No, I haven't noticed any difference between one pill or another, ever, and I have been prescribed OxyContin for quite some time now, 40mg b.d. I find them very smooth and regular in their effect compared to other m/r analgesics like DHC 60mg and MST Continus 30 and 60mg. Now the MST, though made by the same company, yes, I HAVE noticed differences in effect, maybe due to so much more morphine being released at the one time; I can be fairly certain that's the cause because in general without an anti-emetic, morphine makes me sick, and on those occasions when I felt as though i had taken more morphine than usual, i sure felt sick. Cyclimorph is OK, containing as it does, 30mg cyclizine per dose, like Diconal (dipipanone) which is not an m/r or s/r drug, but certainly the cyclizine prevents any sickness.

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oops! i almost forgot to mention, as u stated ginny, about the GI issues? I also have h plori infection,so i don't know if that has any signifiance in how this drugh affects me differently from time to time. i just wanted to add this info, because when reading your post, what you stated about your stomach problems, etc....maybe somehow related to my own symptoms....

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i was diagnosed with hep c in 2000, and underwent 2 spinal surgeries, one in 2001, and the second in 2006. I was prescribed oxycontin post operatively for both surgeries, but over the course of several years, i found that due to the extensive damage to my liver, my body was unable to metabolize the medication in a timely manner, however, i still take oxycodone 5mg yellow and white capsules, which seem to help relieve my lower back pain, but i too have experienced how some days 1 5mg dose,takes longer to feel, then on other days, it hits me within 15-20 min. usually after i have had my morning coffee. sometimes i get so sedated, that i consume large amounts of caffeine (coffee, soda, tea, etc....) in an attempt to balance it out. it is reassuring to know that i am not the only one who has experienced these effects. thanx so much for your post

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I was put on Oxycontin 10mg to start with last year and later the dosage was increased to 15mg. I did not pass any full capsules, at least not that I noticed. I was on Oxycontin for about four months and could not sleep although I was tired all the time and could not keep my eyes open. I could also not drive because I was flying high all the time and my concentration was down to zero.

Unlike others instead of being constipated I had to visit the toilet 2-3 times a day and since I stopped taking Oxycontin I am constipated again.

Although I was on a low dosage it got so bad in the end that I asked my GP to take me off these pills and give me something else. I am now on Durogesic Dtrans pathces. The only problem I have with these patches is that I wake up nearly every night scared of something, don't have a clue what. But one of the side effects of these patches is given as hallucinations, maybe that's what it is.

BTW, the Oxycontin I was supplied with were from Napp in Cambridge, are these the real deal or generic version?

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