Percodan and Percoset - what's the difference?

Factual Questions
1

What exactly are the differences between Percodan and Percoset?

I understand Percodan is oxycodone plus aspirin, and percoset is oxycodone plys acetominophen.

I don’t find aspirin or acetominophen helpful, yet when I got switched from Percodan to Percoset (planning for a procedure before which I can’t take aspirin), I found I seemed to have a lot more pain in spite of taking more of them. It’s hard to believe that losing the aspirin made the difference!

I was taking 3 or 4 Percodan during a typical day. Yesterday, on Percoset, I took 6, yet had poor control of the pain.

The Percosets say they are 5/325 oxycodone/APAP. The Percodan bottles never seemed to have numeric information. Is Percodan a fixed amount of oxycodone that is larger than 5 mg?

BTW I just spent half an hour looking at search results for “percodan percoset”. Amazing, a third of the web sites are for cheap drugs without a prescription, a third are about recovering from addiction, and a third are about both. It’s not a very attractive display…

2

You might have better luck if you spell it correctly. It’s percocet.

IANAD but I’ve found that aspirin works better than Tylenol for some things, and vice versa. For me, Tylenol seems better for any kind of bodily ache or pain; aspirin seems better, sometimes, for headaches.

3

Percodan and Percocet are just one particular manufacturer’s trade names for mixtures of oxycodone & aspirin (in the first case) and oxycodone and acetaminophen (in the second case). I forget which company manufactures that particular trade name. The standard dose of each medication (IIRC) is 5 mg of oxycodone plus 325 of either aspirin or acetaminophen. Other strengths are available, and you may see some mixes of the meds referred to as 5/500, 7.5/750, 7.5/325, etc.

All marketing, really.

If you have liver disease, avoid compounds with acetaminophen in them. If you have a tendency for GI bleeding or gastric ulcers, avoid compounds with aspirin in them. If you have a history of drug addiction or alcoholism, avoid whenever possible using oxycodone. If it’s necessary for significant acute pain, use it under close medical supervision.

It’s real individual as to whether one person gets more relief from acetaminophen or aspirin (or other NSAIDS for that matter).

QtM, MD

4

Perhaps it was because aspirin is an anti-inflammatory, but acetaminophen isn’t, so reducing inflammation a little bit might have helped the pain.

5

Unlikely. To get a significant anti-inflammatory effect from aspirin and other NSAIDS, it’s necessary to take them in higher doses, regularly, for at least a week.