Opioids Hydrocodone Half Life and Safety Question

[sovietelectroclash]

I am 370lbs, and was recently prescribed 10mg hydrocodone / 325mg acetaminophen for up to six times a day. Sometimes the pain seems to be too much even for this "powerful pain medicine" as my Doctor puts it. I have a high threshold for opiates, as I was prescribed 7.5mg hydrocodone / 325mg acetaminophen for over a year. My primary question is that according to medical research that I have found on google, it states that 90mg or more of hydrocodone in a 24 hour period represents a "fatal dose." What I'm wondering is if this means 90 mg in your system at one specific time not counting the half lives of each individual dose being fatal, or 90mg in your system at once accounting for all half lives of previous doses? For instance, if you take 80 mg (so 8 10mg pills) in 18 hours, would you be in danger of dying by taking another one or one and a half pills putting you at 90mg or 95mg for a 24 hour period? Or, do half lives need to be accounted for? So, say you take 2 10mg hydrocodone pills every 6 hours, are you actually at 80mg towards the 90mg in a day lethal dosage, or are you really at the sum of each dose at it's current half life added up to your last dose? I hope that I'm explaining this well enough for someone to answer me, and I'm sorry if the question was asked in too complex of a manner. Thank you!

 

[Speed King]

I would definitely check with your primary health provider. I will say if your doctor is prescribing the medication and this doctor knows what you are taking, then the subjective numbers you mentioned may be refering to a opiate naive person. You obviously have a tolerance, based strictly on what you said so I would figure that is the deal. I am not a doctor and suggest you contact your doctor to satisfy your concerns.

 

[Shortec Stublue!!]

Hi Soviet, as you have previously had a years continuous use with I am assuming 7.5mg x 6 a day. Depending on the gap between the move up to 10mg this will not have a significant noticeable difference in analgesia I suspect. Taking into account also your weight, it is no wonder you cannot always control your pain.

Regarding half life, this is for Vicodin (we can’t get it here in England) but I know it to be 4-6 hours. So after 6 hours a 10mg dose will have metabolised and eliminated 5mg, 6 hours later another 2.5mg has left your body and so forth.

Essentially every time you take your dose at the six hour interval, half of your last one will still be in circulation. Hope this helps!!

 

[negrogesic]

Its really about blood concentration. Fatal blood concentrations of hydrocodone can occur with single or staggered dosing, but are of course more likely to occur in large single doses. The 90mg "fatal dose" seems quite arbitrary (not sure where you got that number) and would seem to refer to non-tolerant individuals. Hydrocodone isn't often prescribed at doses beyond 60mg/day, which is good considering that high doses of acetaminophen are toxic. There are cases of tolerant individuals prescribed higher doses than 90mg (generally as a result of compounded medications not containing acetaminophen) for individuals who seem to respond well to hydrocodone.

Unfortunately your question ("will taking 9 but not 8 vicoden kill me?") can't really be answered in the way you were hoping however. I suppose the only answer is that a) blood levels associated with fatal overdoses can be the result of large single doses, or can accumulate over time, and b) lethal blood concentrations vary greatly with individual tolerance (.5mg/L might be the average concentration measured in hydrocodone overdose victims, but there may be people walking around with 1.5mg/L in their bloodstream).