[adoublej]

I need help! My fiance was taking the morphine and now the Dr. has switched him to the oxycontin. I need to know which one is stronger and which one can be more harmful. I read on both that if you have athsma you shouldn't take these meds. but he has severe athsma. I am worried that he might have an addiction and I want to help him. I don't understand a whole lot about drugs and I need help figuring out what he is taking and what the differences are. Someone please leave feedback letting me know what the differences are in these two meds.

[mpvt]

Both of these drugs are opiates and can be addictive when abused.MS Contin is slow release Morphine were Oxycontin is slow release oxycodone.When taken orally oxycontin is about 1 1\2 times stronger than morphine.What sort of problems does he have that warrants a oxycontin regine??If you think he's addicted then he's on the most abused opiate in history (oxycodone).There isn't much you can do until he's ready to do something about it.When a doctor is prescribing drugs it then becomes difficult to convince the patient to do anything because they think that everything is fine because they get the drugs legally.If he's been taking opiates for a long time then it's not a matter of just quitting as he would go into severe withdrawl.It won't kill you but you may want to be dead when you go through them.This is why alot of addicts don't get clean, they're terrified of the withdrawls and for good reason.Good luck to you and let me know how you're doing......Dave

[Cats Meow]

Oxycodone and Morphine are equally comparative to each other in respiratory depression, according to this site. It has very good info that may answer most of your other Q's.
http://www.thedrugmonitor.com/analgesics.html

[amgalvin3]

and now I am in college to be a drug councilor. MS's are not much different than OC's except OC's come in 20, 40, & 80 (they used to actually have a 160 too, but took it off the market). MS's come in 15, 30, 60, 100, & 200 mg. Methadone only comes in 10 mg nowadays, however they used to have 40 mg "wafers". You cannot get those from the pharmacy anymore. You can pay between 70 & 100 per week and go to a methadone clinic and get liquid form in as much as you want. For me to come off the Oc's and MS's I had to take 114 mg of methadone daily. That's a LOT of 10 mg pills! I gotta go back to work, but if anyone needs more info on any of this, my email is agalvin3@yahoo.com. Hope to hear from you, as now that I'm on the helping side, I can let you know just about anything you want or need to know, for pain or for whatever. On here, I'm unbiased on why you take what you take. ;o)

[Sigmund51]

A short story... I was a firefighter until I was injured in 1985. I've had two neck surgeries and I have debilitating headaches. I take about 40mg of Morphine, 2 regular strength Vicodin and thee Baclofen daily. With all that, I still have pain and not once have I had any kind of "high" feeling from these meds. All they do is make me tired. I'd be happy as heck if I didnt have to take them. About 15 years ago, my girlfriend decided I shouldn't be taking them (because they made me tired all the time). Without any discussion, and unknown to me, she called my doctor and suddenly he refused to treat me any more... no idea what she said to him but it couldn't have been anything true. I NEVER abused my meds... ever. Only a few weeks later, a Pain Clinic, reviewing my records and after doing tests, put me right back on similar meds.

My thought is this... Does anyone bother to find out why he's taking them and determine if there is any abuse at all before waving a bunch of red flags? The benefits of the drug may outweigh the possible risks.

The first thing I'd do is talk to your boyfriend and see if you can go to a doctor visit and ask questions.

Oh, and by the way... For several weeks I was in a great deal of pain. When I found out what my girlfriend had done, I immediately canceled our wedding and never saw her again.

[Cats Meow]

I guess you didn't love her huh? Anyhow, your medical stuff is confidential, your doctors office has no business talking to her, and they know it, she could be anybody, something doesn't sound right here.

[Sigmund51]

There was more to the breakup... our relationship was pretty rocky at that point. That was just the straw for me. I wasn't at all happy about how events unfolded... how and why. I was told by a trusted source, after the fact, about the inappropriate communication with my doctor.

As a firefighter I did see my share of addicts and people with dependencies and it's good to ask questions. My point though, is that some people take meds like this for the reason they were intended... and it seems there are too many "well intended" people finding problems where there are none. I don't know the situation here... just asking questions:-)