We publish material that is researched, cited, edited and reviewed by licensed medical professionals. The information we provide is does alcohol cause gallstones not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. It should not be used in place of the advice of your physician or other qualified healthcare providers. This medicine will add to the effects of alcohol and other CNS depressants.
Talk with your doctor before using this medicine if you plan to have children. Dizziness, lightheadedness, or fainting may occur when you get up suddenly from a lying or sitting position. Also, lying down for a while may relieve dizziness or lightheadedness. Do not drive or do anything else that could be dangerous until you know how this medicine affects you. Store at room temperature, away from heat, moisture, and light.
- Recently, naloxone has been spread widely among emergency responders, pharmacies, and even caregivers, to prevent deadly opioid overdoses.
- If your loved one experiences breathing problems after combining hydrocodone and alcohol, call 911 immediately.
- American Addiction Centers (AAC) is committed to delivering original, truthful, accurate, unbiased, and medically current information.
- With so many people struggling with opioid and alcohol abuse, it is likely that these two conditions will overlap.
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This is not a complete list of side effects and others may occur. Zohydro ER and Hysingla ER are extended-release forms of hydrocodone that are used for around-the-clock treatment of severe pain. Again, hydrocodone and alcohol can be very hazardous when taken together; therefore, it is not recommended to consume any amount of alcohol while taking a hydrocodone product. Always consult your healthcare provider to ensure the information displayed on this page applies to your personal circumstances. Alcohol is found in many over-the-counter medicines, including cough syrups.
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If a person drinks alcohol while also taking hydrocodone, it can increase the effects of the opioid drug and raise blood plasma levels of hydrocodone. Recently, naloxone has been spread widely among emergency responders, pharmacies, and even caregivers, to prevent deadly opioid overdoses. This drug is short-acting, but it temporarily reverses an opioid overdose, giving emergency responders the time they need to treat the individual. However, when stages of alcoholic recovery other substances like alcohol are involved in the overdose, naloxone may be less effective. This drug only works to stop opioid overdoses, not overdoses on other kinds of drugs.
Before taking this medicine
Hydrocodone extended-release capsules and extended-release tablets are difficult to crush, break or dissolve. If you swallow broken, chewed, or crushed extended-release capsules or extended-release tablets, you may receive too much hydrocodone at once. Just one dose can cause death in someone using this medicine accidentally or improperly. Ask your pharmacist where to locate a drug take-back disposal program. If there is no take-back program, flush john joseph kelly and amy carter the unused medicine down the toilet.
Overdose can occur more quickly when these two substances are combined than if one or the other is taken on its own. Mixing alcohol and hydrocodone can also raise the level of drug dependence more rapidly. When someone is dependent on hydrocodone, drug cravings and significant withdrawal symptoms can occur when the drug isn’t active in the bloodstream. Concurrent use of alcohol and hydrocodone can complicate and intensify not only drug dependence but also withdrawal symptoms. Insomnia, flu-like symptoms, anxiety, and depression are common side effects of both alcohol and opioid withdrawal.
Your doctor may recommend you get naloxone (a medicine to reverse an opioid overdose) and keep it with you at all times. A person caring for you can give the naloxone if you stop breathing or don’t wake up. Your caregiver must still get emergency medical help and may need to perform CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) on you while waiting for help to arrive. Alcohol and opioids are both depressants, meaning they lead to relaxation, pleasure, changes to breathing and heart rate, and trouble thinking clearly or remembering events. When two drugs both cause these as side effects, mixing them increases the likelihood that a person will pass out, stop breathing, or suffer heart failure and die. Adolescents experiencing addiction have an increased risk for mixing drugs and alcohol.
Check with your doctor right away if you have anxiety, restlessness, a fast heartbeat, fever, sweating, muscle spasms, twitching, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, or see or hear things that are not there. These may be symptoms of a serious condition called serotonin syndrome. Your risk may be higher if you also take certain other medicines that affect serotonin levels in your body.
Note that this list is not all-inclusive and includes only common medications that may interact with hydrocodone. You should refer to the prescribing information for hydrocodone for a complete list of interactions. Medicines that interact with hydrocodone may either decrease its effect, affect how long it works, increase side effects, or have less of an effect when taken with hydrocodone. An interaction between two medications does not always mean that you must stop taking one of the medications; however, sometimes it does.
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You should be aware if anyone is using it improperly or without a prescription. Extended-release hydrocodone is not for use on an as-needed basis for pain. American Addiction Centers (AAC) is committed to delivering original, truthful, accurate, unbiased, and medically current information. We strive to create content that is clear, concise, and easy to understand.
An overdose involving both alcohol and hydrocodone may be more difficult to reverse than an overdose on either of the substances on their own. For instance, an overdose involving an opioid drug can generally be reversed by the opioid antagonist naloxone. When multiple drugs are involved, it can take more than one dose of the reversal medication to have any impact. Alcohol poisoning is not typically reversed in the same way, which can complicate treatment. Hydrocodone also stays in the bloodstream and body longer than alcohol does, so it is important to ensure the drug is completely out of the system before drinking any alcohol. The extended-release versions of hydrocodone can remain active for 12 hours to 24 hours while the immediate-action formulations typically wear off between four hours and eight hours.
Store it at room temperature and away from excess heat and moisture (not in the bathroom). You must immediately dispose of any medication that is outdated or no longer needed through a medicine take-back program.. If you do not have a take-back program nearby or one that you can access promptly, flush any hydrocodone tablets or capsules that are outdated or no longer needed down the toilet.