Submit your Defective Drugs claim details for a free, no obligation case review.
Get Started:
drug_recall oxycontinWhat is OxyContin?
OxyContin is a semisynthetic opioid analgesic prescribed for chronic or long-lasting pain. OxyContin’s active ingredient is oxycodone and can also be found in drugs like Percodan and Tylox. OxyContin, unlike these other drugs contains between 10-160 mg of oxycodone in a timed-release tablet. Tylox and other similar painkillers contain just 5 mg of oxycodone and require multiple doses to be taken because it does not have the timed-release formulation.
How Is OxyContin Used?
OxyContin, also referred to as “Oxy,” “O.C.,” “Oxycotton”, and “killer” on the street, is supposed to provide as many as 12 hours of relief from chronic pain. Most often prescribed for terminal cancer patients or chronic pain sufferers, OxyContin was supposed to provide patients with relief because people would only need to take it twice a day.
How Do People Abuse OxyContin?
OxyContin is crushed and then ingested, snorted, or diluted in water and injected. Crushing or diluting the tablet disarms the timed-release action of OxyContin to cause a quick and powerful heroin-like high. Some areas in the country have replaced the use of heroin with OxyContin.
OxyContin’s manufacturer, Purdue Pharma, has taken steps to reduce the potential for abuse of the medication. An alternative to OxyContin without the addictive traits is being studied, but if another medicine is created it will not be available for a significant amount of time. Until then, Purdue Pharma has been trying to develop ways of preventing more instances of abuse and addiction to OxyContin.
How Does OxyContin Abuse Differ From Abuse of Other Pain Prescriptions?
Unfortunately, people have been, and will continue to, abuse prescription drugs, but OxyContin has become an especially alarming situation. OxyContin contains a much larger amount of oxycodone compared with other prescription pain relievers that have been abused in the past. OxyContin abusers crush the pill and snort or inject it in order to instantaneously feel the effects the drug can have.
OxyContin abuse was first reported in rural areas, such as Kentucky, that rely on labor-intensive industries that are often times located in economically poor areas. The residents may have started off with prescriptions for OxyContin and soon found their strong addiction to the painkiller would allow them to sell it for profit. The cases of addiction were followed by robberies and false prescriptions that made getting OxyContin for legitimate patients hard due to the number of pharmacies refusing to carry the abused drug.
How likely is OxyContin addiction?
Healthline reported on the controversy of OxyContin that has relieved thousands of people from pain but have resulted in OxyContin addiction despite the patients following the prescription directions. OxyContin is abused for its “heroin like highs”, making getting off of OxyContin also like getting off heroin.
The company that makes the pain relief drug OxyContin, Purdue Pharma LP, agreed Thursday to pay $600 million as a penalty for misleading and defrauding consumers and physicians about the addictive properties of its product. Another $34.5 million in pen...
Legislation promoted by Rep. Frank R. Wolf (R-Va.) and attached to a multi-department appropriations bill was passed last year with little notice, but this year, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and many drug makers and doctors objected to its ren...
Purdue Pharma’s popular and controversial prescription drug OxyContin has avoided being named in a certification of a class action lawsuit claiming harm, including addiction.
OxyContin contains a very strong narcotic pain reliever similar t...