What is the difference between oxycontin & oxycodone?

[jdawne1899]

Is there a difference between these?

[Lynn79]

I believe the difference is in the release of the medication.  Oxycontin is a 12 hour sustained release form of Oxycodone, and then there is an Oxycodone immediate release, taken every six hours, which I think is Percocet.  Percocet is a combination of Oxycodone and Acetaminophen.

[jdawne1899]

OOOOO OK, I always thought that the oxycontin's were the WAY more powerful ones but really it's the oxycodone (percs)

[enemy48]

Wow, I get more and more educated every day here.

In a recent reply on a post I said that I never took oxy and didn't even know what it looked like.  

Well after reading this, and going into a drug website for more clarification, it turns out that I've taken a sh*t load of oxys!

It was the drug tylox prescribed to me before my back surgery when I was going to pain management.  My dosage was 2 every 4 hours.  So I was taking 8 a day!

No wonder I was addicted to painkillers and took as many as I did.

Things that make you go humph!

[joangy]

neither one is more "powerful" than the other- oxycontin is the exact same chemical as oxycodone- just in a coated tablet that releases the med slowly.  And Perc or Tylox is oxycodone with tylenol- same category as the oxycontin as far as "power."

Why were you asking?? Just curious...

[jdawne1899]

I was actually just asking b/c I hear of people referring to them differently, I've NEVER liked them THANK GOD, but I was always under the impression that the percs/oxycodone were prescribed like vicodin, where as Oxycontin's were almost more for like cancer patients??

[LateAugust]

Actually the molecule difference between oxycontin and heroin is  3,  not so similar  with percacet ..........   and how you use i.e  orally  snorting   smoking  oxycontin has a huge impact on your addiction and the tolerance  and the effects on your body.  

There is a difference between these drugs.    It truly is so important to educate yourself with facts of the drugs  impact  harms  and addiction potential, provided by medical personnel,  or the internet has a lot of sources for information as well, for general information.

[Mikeinthesouth]

oxycontin is actually a much larger dose than regular percadan if taken crushed to change the release time...

[LateAugust]

I think that is what I was trying :)  to say.......     it is very common for people to go from oxycontin to heroin  when they are broke   because of the molecule   (chemistry )similarity of the two drugs.  You don't see many make that jump from oxycodone to heroin, seems to be a minority....statistically anyway.     Two different demons  when abused.  Withdrawal due to the chemical make-up  is also different between the two.

[Dezdon]

HI,
  I take the 20mg oxycotin (time release) and it never works the full 12 hours. Maybe just over eight, then the pain returns. Its not that I need a larger dose, the pain coverage while its working is perfect, it just doesnt last as long as it should for me.  
  Anybody eles experince this also?
peace
-Dez

[LateAugust]

Sorry  Dez  no   I have no experience with oxy, other than my daughter was smoking 800 mgs a day in addition to a **** load of other drugs,  and she is currently fighting for her life.      I think you may want to look at or check out the pain management forum.  The people here are either trying themselves, or family members, to get as far away from oxycontin as possible, because the use has been abused  and certainly not as medically prescribled, or like my girl, not prescribed at all.

I am just trying to guide you to the right forum, where people, such as yourself are dealing with pain control and not addiction.  I hope that make sense,  if not please repost  and others  will try to get you to the right forum.  Take good care  Dez,  and I hope your pain will begin to diminish soon.    Sincerely,  Jeanette

[Dezdon]

HI
  I totaly understand what your saying and apreciate the recomendation. I read in here because i am an addict. I just went through a taper and then three days clean to get me back to my prescribed dose level. Now I am fighting to stay on that prescribed dose. My pain is too high to be completly clean, but I was out of control and abusing like crazy. This forum helped me get back under control. I read alot here to remind myself where I was, where i could go and how not to. Maybe someday I will have healed enough that I can be clean.
peace
-Dez

[LateAugust]

Ahh  sweetie,  based on your post I didn't know you were struggling with addiction too. Sometimes life just isn't fair,  and I am sure it is very hard for you to try to balance the meds in addition to  your pain.    Hopefully you are having real candid dialogs with your docs  to help you manage the pain  yet keep that demon of drug abuse  temptation away from you.  Yeah I know that sounds like an oxy moron,  but I think the more direct you can be with your health care providers  the more they can help you with addiction.  Just a thought hon,  like I said I have no experience with prescribed usage, unfortunately just with the addict use.      Take good care,  and please let us know how you are doing, my thoughts are with you,   Jeanette

[Tami4058]

I have been on oxycontin/oxycodone since it came out for my pain and I believe it to be the best pain killer ever...and believe me I have been thru the most of them.But I take them the way they are prescribed to me and it works great.The thing is my doctor is weird about this....because of the bad pubicity about OXYCONTIN he puts me on oxycodone the generic form which is fine by me it works the same but....now they are not making the generic ( so they say) and he says he will not write oxycontin anymore! What do I do? What is the next drug that even compares to it? Help!!                           Tami                                                                                                                                    

[SGMike]

I take OxyIR which from what I have been told is a fast release version of Oxycontin. It is more powerful than Percocet. I am hating it getting off OxyIR (at 30+ 5mg caps a day) and I recently took Percocet and It didn't even touch me. Pain is just such a vicious cycle that if you keep getting worse and keep increasing the pain relief like I did then you are in trouble like me. I just cant believe the withdrawal symptoms are not letting up by now. :(

[Tami4058]

I need a long lasting pain killer 12 hour or so.... maybe I'm in the wrong place for this question...o:

[katarina777]

Doctors now frequently also prescribe methodone for pain. For real chronic pain, i also find percocet useless because it is way too short acting, like three hours?

[katarina777]

PS: Someone brought up doctors and how only really they know what's best. (exaggerated)  I don't think they know much about pain control and meds at all, at least certainly not more than most patients.

Even worse, and so unfortunately, honesty tends to backfire with most docs. It is so frustrating to me. there line of thinking comes from a totally different place than it should, except for maybe with cancer doctors. If you confide about them about having a problem and wanting help, well, good luck.

I called my doctor's nurse when I stopped having pain after I had been using a fentanyl patch. i hated it anyway but it helped a lot. I got a lot of withdrawals and asked the nurse how they taper patients off it. she told me she has never in her 30 years of being an oncology nurse heard of anyone having withdrawel symptoms and not even when they took 5 times the amount I did and for ten times as long. i suppose they all died?

I felt like a fool, really. For some reason, whenever I have real pain and serious pain, physical, I never abuse the meds. only when I don't.

[denamarie]

I found these pills in a drawer in my house...They are white, round, and say 512 on them...My husband has been having back pain becasue of work and was taking Vicodin...I looked up these online and it was oxycodone...he got them from a friend and when I asked him about them being oxycontin...he said no, percacet...Im even more confused after reading all these...is it the same or not???Is what I found as strong just doesn't last as long???

[strictlyforpain]

Maybe I can shed some light. I won't attempt to identify drugs as the moderators post asks us not to.

I've taken Percocet (forever) and OxyContin (6 months) with OxyIR (6 months). Percocet in my body is vastly different than OxyContin and OxyIR. I found they had next to nothing in common. I have serious chronic pain that has lasted since June of 2007 and right now it's cranking me up so bad that I'm really just getting by.

Percocet is extremely dangerous because if you are not a strong person you will become it's slave. Percocet will own you. That 2 to 3 hour float on Percocet is unlike anything I've ever taken. But in my experience Percocet and OxyContin are way under-powered for pain. I can take them and they take the edge off (Percocet for 2 hours / OxyContin for 4 hours) and then they left me in the weeds begging.

I can plainly state that each drug seemed very different to me. Neither of them worked as well as I would like. I would take the Percocet for about 4 months and then quit for two or three weeks to try and get them working again. Coming off Percocet for me was an 18 hour battle in which the last 6 hours are about the only time I noticed the symptoms. After that I was fine.

Now I'm on methadone for pain and it works great. I'm not sure I like knowing what I'm taking but last night I slept all the way through the night for the first time in a long time. It was really nice. Pain didn't wake me up every 2 hours.