Is dilaudid stronger than morphine?

Hello, Rainenaye,

I haven't logged in to Drugs.com in many months, so it is for the 1st time I am reading your post from a couple of weeks ago. Hopefully, by now, things have moved along well for you, and my response will have been a moot point. But I figure it's better to be safe than sorry, rather than to not respond at all.

Deezoobaby's response was excellent, btw - (s)he was right on the money concerning Dilaudid's (hydromorphone) strength with respect to morphine, which is the baseline painkiller against which the efficacy of other opioids are measured - on a mg. to mg. basis.

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My pain mgt physician used to prescribe a regimen of Dilaudid and OxyContin for me, but after several months I felt it was not very effective, strange as that may seem - especially given the high dosages of each I was taking. That, combined with the incredibly expensive prescription tab I was running up each month (despite having excellent Rx drug coverage, I've always been acutely mindful of how much drugs cost, especially when they don't seem to be doing the trick), prompted me to do the "mg. to mg." math Deezoobaby had mentioned in order to come up with a morphine equivalency for the drugs I was taking. The end result: my total rx tab submitted to my carrier would drop from $2,500/month to around $100/month, if I were prescribed morphine sulfate IR exclusively.

My physician - impressed not only with my math, but also with the accuracy/validity of my approach plus the fact that I had clearly rounded the final numbers down - agreed. Within days of the switch, my pain levels dropped appreciably. Unfortunately, at least in my case, the strongest single unit dose of morphine sulfate IR is the 30mg tablet, so the quantity I need to take with each dose seemed very alarming at first. But eventually, I became accustomed to it and have long since gotten over that initial shock.

One last thing to note, mainly for clarification purposes: morphine is not “synthetic heroin”; rather, it is one of the many naturally-occurring – and, along with codeine, one the most significant - alkaloids found in the resin secreted by the bud of the opium poppy. Heroin, on the other hand, is a semi-synthetic compound derived from the morphine alkaloid through a process involving acids and other toxic materials at high temperatures. Not only is it far more powerful as a painkiller – more so even than the likes of Dilaudid or even fentanyl (again, on a mg. to mg. basis) – but it is far more deadly. Regardless, morphine is still a potent narcotic opiate with a strength to be reckoned with, and therefore, it needs to be handled accordingly.

Regards,
Duckworthy