Health & Fitness
Slower-Releasing Oxycodone Helps Lower Overdoses
An extended-release version of painkiller Oxycodone (otherwise known as Percocet) has helped to lower overdoses in the last five years.
An extended-release version of painkiller Oxycodone (otherwise known as Percocet) has helped to lower overdoses in the last five years, according to a recent Journal of the American Medical Association study.
This painkiller is not as easy to grind up and put in a solution or to snort, explained Robert Korn, MD, medical director of North Shore-LIJ GoHealth.
“Percocet, as a drug, is easily-abused because it is on the street and can be bought for a fairly small amount,” Dr. Korn said. “Having changed the formulation, maybe the hard-core drug users and people who inject aren’t using it as much. But you still see a lot of it out there.”
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For people who are concerned that they will become addicted to a painkiller after a surgery or trauma, the likelihood of addiction after only a few days is small, Dr. Korn said.
“You don’t get addicted if you’re taking two or three days worth after a big procedure or a big injury,” Dr. Korn said. “We try to turn people over to the non-narcotic pain medicines as quickly as possible, particularly the Motrin and ibuprofren class of drugs. Tylenol, believe it or not, is almost as effective as the narcotics. And the earlier we can turn you over to those kinds of drugs and stop the narcotics, the better you’ll feel because you won’t feel hungover or sluggish and you’ll actually get fairly good pain relief.
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“The incidence of addiction is fairly small after two or three days use of narcotics. The problem comes in when somebody’s two and three weeks into using these drugs and then the drug itself starts to exert side effects that predispose you to addiction.”
For people who want to learn more about substance abuse, these are a few resources that Scott Krakower, DO, assistant unit director at Zucker Hillside Hospital in Glen Oaks, recommends:
