This page was prepared by Tami Skinner, LPN Internet Nursing Guide
Michigan Nurses, Pediatrics, Respiratory, Home Health, Medical-Surgical, Long Term Care
http://www.nursefriendly.com/skinner/

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Oxycontin (Oxycodone Hydrochloride): About.com with Teri Robert: "Oxycontin (Oxycodone hydrochloride controlled-release) is an opioid analgesic in time-release form. Oxycontin is supplied in 10 mg, 20 mg, 40 mg, 80 mg, and 160 mg tablet strengths. The tablet strengths describe the amount of Oxycodone per tablet. While earlier reports contained some pretty startling numbers, they tended not to include this very important fact: In many, if not most cases, death was a result of polypharmacy - a mixture of drugs. In some cases, the victims had been drinking and using at least one other drug in addition to Oxycodone. I many cases, there was no way to know that the Oxycodone found in the bodies had come from Oxycontin rather than another drug containing Oxycodone. Some other drugs that contain Oxycodone are Percocet, Tylox, and Endocet"
http://headaches.about.com/library/weekly/aa050901a.htm

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Oxycontin (Oxycodone hydrochloride): A page with comprehensive information about this drug, collected by a woman suffering with pain: Shawna Kopchu RN, Director of headachepainfree.com: "I wanted to create a page that explains Oxycontin and how it helps for chronic pain sufferers, the dangers, the pros and cons and anything I can find about the drug. Lately all I have read is bad press on Oxycontin and how they are calling this drug the "Poor Man's Heroin". So I am devoting this page to explaining all there is to know about Oxycontin and how it has been a life saver to many people, including myself."
http://www.headachepainfree.com/oxycontin.htm

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Information and studies concerning Oxycontin (Oxycodone hydrochloride): Center Watch Clinical Trial Listings Service; patient resources: "Oxycontin is contraindicated in subjects with known hypersensitivity to Oxycodone, or in any situation where opioids are contraindicated. This includes subjects with significant respiratory depression (in unmonitored settings or the absence of resuscitative equipment), and subjects with acute or severe bronchial asthma or hypercarbia. Oxycontin is contraindicated in any subjects who has or is suspected of having paralytic ileus…In clinical trials of Oxycontin tablets, involving more than 700 subjects, onset of pain relief occurred within one hour for most subjects"
http://www.centerwatch.com/patient/drugs/DRU120.html

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Oxycontin (Oxycodone hydrochloride); an article about Oxycontin: Doctors Guide: "Oxycontin (TM) generated a groundswell of international support at this year's meeting of the International Association of the Study of Pain (IASP). The enthusiasm of IASP members parallels the powerful U.S. response to the launch of OxyContin -- enabling the drug to achieve its entire expected first-year sales in only eight months. The most serious risk associated with opioids, including OxyContin, is respiratory depression. Common opioid side effects are constipation, nausea, sedation, dizziness, vomiting, pruritus, headache, dry mouth, sweating, and weakness."
http://www.pslgroup.com/dg/cad6.htm

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Abuse of Oxycontin (Oxycodone hydrochloride): Oxycontin Referral.com: "The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) reports that, in the United States, oxycodone products, including OxyContin, are frequently abused pharmaceuticals. The pharmacological effects of OxyContin make it a suitable substitute for heroin; therefore, it is attractive to the same abuser population. Several deaths have resulted specifically from the abuse of OxyContin. Oxycodone is a central nervous system depressant. Oxycodone's action appears to work through stimulating the opioid receptors found in the central nervous system that activate responses ranging from analgesia to respiratory depression to euphoria."
http://www.oxycontin-referral.com/

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Comprehensive information including links to other resources concerning Oxycontin (Oxycodone Hydrochloride): Vernon J. Petri and Associates: OxyContin® is a form of synthetic morphine which is normally taken in tablet form. OxyContin is extremely potent and effective at reducing pain for a period of several hours. It is primarily used by cancer patients. However, it is also used for other ailments and its popularity has grown as the 'pain-killer' of choice by many doctors and patients. The drug itself, as indicated above, is extremely potent, which increases the possibility of overdose. These factors heighten the concern that doctors may be prescribing OxyContin to patients who, while in need of a pain reliever, are not in need of this particular drug or are over-prescribing OxyContin to patients. Both could lead to addiction and possibly death."
http://www.oxycontin-lawyer.com/oxycontin/oxycontin.html

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Oxycontin (Oxycodone hydrochloride): Recall.com: "The Lee Coalition for Health in Lee County, Virginia has initiated the National Petition to recall OxyContin. While this is a complicated issue with many factors to consider, we feel that the pain and suffering brought to countless families and communities by the abuse of the drug far surpasses the benefits. It is clear by now that the best interests of the public health are served by the recall of OxyContin."
http://www.recalloxycontinnow.org/index.htm

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Oxycontin (Oxycodone Hydrochloride): "MSN Health: "Brand Names: M-Oxy, OxyContin, Oxyir, Percolone, Roxicodone.Avoid alcohol while taking oxycodone. Alcohol will greatly increase the drowsiness and dizziness caused by oxycodone and could be dangerous. Also avoid sleeping pills, tranquilizers, sedatives, and antihistamines except under the supervision of your doctor. These medications also may cause dangerous sedation. Use caution when driving, operating machinery, or performing other hazardous activities. Oxycodone may cause drowsiness. If you experience drowsiness, avoid these activities."
http://content.health.msn.com/drug_article/article/4046.938#whatis

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Drug abuse among Oxycontin (Oxycodone Hydrochloride) patients: A Healthy Me: "FRIDAY, Feb. 9 (HealthScout) -- A powerful drug that started out as a way to kill the intense pain of advanced cancer and other diseases has hit the underground, spreading rapidly among people who are using it to get high, say narcotics officials in the United States. Illegal use of the drug, OxyContin, was first reported in Maine about 18 months ago, but has since spread south, officials say. Law enforcement agencies throughout the east have been staging bust operations to quash the problem. John Burke, director of the Warren County drug task force in Lebanon, Ohio, and vice president of the National Association of Drug Diversion Investigators, calls illicit use of OxyContin and related substances a "huge" problem nationwide. Many people illegally obtain OxyContin by "doctor shopping" -- going from physician to physician for prescriptions. Other forms of diversion include stealing from pharmacies and writing phony orders for the pills, Burke says."
http://www.ahealthyme.com/article/remedy/100561630

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OxyContin, Iowa Department of Public Safety:"OxyContin Abuse is becoming a wide spread problem in America. OxyContin is a leading treatment for chronic pain, but officials fear it may succeed crack cocaine on the street. The DEA says it is only a matter of time before every community in the country is confronted with the problem of OxyContin abuse. No prescription drug in the last 20 years has been so widely abused after its release, federal officials say. Rather than ingesting the pill as indicated, people who abuse OxyContin use other methods of administering the drug. To avoid the controlled-release, they chew, snort, or inject the medication to get an instant and intense "high". Improper prescribing practices by unscrupulous physicians are a way of diverting pharmaceuticals, according to law enforcement sources survey by the NDIC. The abuse of OxyContin, as with the abuse of most prescription drugs, creates a cycle of health care fraud. For example, a corrupt physician writes a patient a prescription for OxyContin for a nonexistent injury. The physician bills the insurance company for that, and subsequent visits. The patient uses a portion of the OxyContin and sells the rest for a substantial profit. The Huntington Drug and Violent Crime Task Force reports "There are too many doctors supplementing their income by writing improper prescriptions."
800-532-0052, dneinfo@dps.state.ia.us
http://www.dps.state.ia.us/DNE/drugid.shtml#oxy

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