Question about how the body metabolizes heroin vs. oxycodone.

[woodandink]

From what I understand, heroin is metabolized into morphine, and 6-monoacetylmorphine, which is apparently unique to heroin. My question is, what is oxycodone metabolized into? I assume it's not morphine but something else...oxymorphone maybe according to some things I've read? Chemically, what's the difference between oxymorphone and morphine? Are they really that different?

 

[Pilll_head]

Oxycodone will get metabolized to oxymorphone and nor-oxycodone, and probably the glucuronide also. Most drugs including heroin and oxycodone are also removed by the kidneys to some extent. Chemically they are very similar but small changes in structure can have an impact on potency. Oxymorphone is stronger than morphine. I've never tried it personally but from the chemical structure I'm willing to bet it is even stronger than heroin. Think of codeine vs. morphine or codeine vs. hydrocodone, or even oxycodone vs. hydrocodone.

 

[laCster]

oxycodone's metabolites are kind of irrelevant because of the strong affinity to mu oxycodone possesses. best way to potentiate oxyocodone is tagamet

 

[Mr Blonde]

^ Oxymorphone has a high affinity for the receptors as well, but then it comes down to whether it is produced in sufficient quantities or not.

The interesting bit though is that heroin functions much as a pro-drug; it is near instantly metabolized inside the brain into morphine, 6-monoacetylmorphine and 3-monoacetylmorphine which then deliver the sweet, sweet effects.

 

[laCster]

correct; i meant to say that oxycodone is metabolized to morphone through 2D6 which only makes up 2-5% of the cytochrome 450 family. that's why the amount of oxymorphone is not correlated with the intensity of effects felt