An Overview:
Hydrocodone and Oxycodone are the most popular prescription drugs that come from the family of opioids. Certainly, if you are purchasing a prescription medicine that belongs to the opioid drugs, the main purpose of the drug is to treat pain issues in humans.
As per the doctor’s advice, the medicine can be used as a short-term treatment for pain that occurs due to injury or surgery. Also, sometimes the doctors prescribe medication to overcome chronic pain requiring a long-term dosage plan. And though the medicines are successfully effective on pain, that doesn’t mean you can use them recreationally.
For the treatment of chronic pain, arthritis or pain from cancer, one can be prescribed the dose of either Hydrocodone or Oxycodone. However, you must not take them simultaneously as they can be harmful in many ways. In fact, your doctor may prescribe one opioid drug in combination with a less potent prescription drug like Acetaminophen.
What is Oxycodone? What’s its purpose of use?
The medication of Oxycodone is an impactful substance that’s useful in treating moderate and severe pain. A person can use the medication as an around-the-clock treatment for pain until their doctor suggests to ends the prescription.
In general, you cannot use Oxycodone without the advice of the doctor. It’s so because the medicine is highly effective and may incur issues that are not safe for your health. In short, one should not take Oxycodone as an over-the-counter medication for pain relief.
What is Hydrocodone? What’s its purpose of use?
The dose of Hydrocodone works almost the same as Oxycodone. Typically, a doctor may prescribe the medication for moderate and severe pain conditions due to an injury or surgery. More so, you can only take Hydrocodone medication for pain as per the doctor’s prescription.
In addition to the drug’s positive effects, it also comes with the risk of causing addiction. Maybe it’s because of how you take the drug, but Hydrocodone tends to cause more dependency than Oxycodone.
Side Effects of Hydrocodone and Oxycodone:-
As you can see, there is no such difference between Oxycodone and Hydrocodone. They both come from the same class of drugs and even have the same impact when misused. That means they may have the same side effects on human health.
Here is the list of common side effects of both drugs –
- Weakness
- Shallow breathing
- Nausea and vomiting
- Itchiness
- Dry mouth
- Lethargy feeling
- Unable to balance
- Stomach pain
Severe Side Effects of both the drugs –
- Feeling like pass out
- Fast heartbeats
- Painful urination
- Confusion in the mind
Unlike Oxycodone, people who take Hydrocodone are much more likely to suffer from constipation. Whereas the ones who use Oxycodone may easily go through extreme sleepiness and weakness as the side effect. Therefore, to avoid these, you can increase the water intake to flush out the toxins in less time.
Is Hydrocodone or Oxycodone a controlled substance?
In 2014, the FDA classified both Oxycodone and Hydrocodone under the Schedule II of the controlled substance act. The reason was due to the medication’s high impact on the human mind, which may result in abuse. More so, they have a high potential of causing abuse and misuse.
When a drug falls under a schedule number, it mostly denotes how harmful the medicine can be to human health. For example, if the drug falls under schedule I, it means that the drug is extremely dangerous and may cause fatal health issues. On the other, schedule IV drugs are safer than the former class of drugs.
Hydrocodone vs Oxycodone:
While going through the above comparison, you can surely say that there’s no such difference between Hydrocodone and Oxycodone. More so, they are both prescription drugs that treat the same condition as the other drug. Therefore, you can purchase any depending upon your doctor’s recommendation.
Apart from a few changes in dose and some less/more effective side effects, the drugs are almost the same when it comes to treating pain issues. However, due to the high risk of causing addiction and a few health problems, we can say Hydrocodone is stronger than Oxycodone in a slight bit manner. Likewise, you can take the drug for a certain and then withdraw from it after taking the doctor’s advice.