Well, this is only my own personal opinion, it’s because hydrocodone is crap as a pain reliver- most of the pain relief work is being done by the acetaminophen. The Hydrocodone just (IMHO) makes you drowsy so you can sleep off the pain and injury. gabriela you may indeed see more deaths from hydrocodone, but liver failure or hepatic injury, or systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) from overdoses of acetaminophen is fairly common and very dangerous, even if you survive. http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/abstract/337/16/1112
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/abstract/106592869/ABSTRACT
Abstract
*Little information is available on acute liver failure (ALF) in the United States. We gathered demographic data retrospectively for a 2-year period from July 1994 to June 1996 on all cases of ALF from 13 hospitals (12 liver transplant centers). Data on the patients included age, hepatic coma grade on admission, presumed cause, transplantation, and outcome. Among 295 patients, 74 (25%) survived spontaneously, 121 (41%) underwent transplantation, and 99 (34%) died without undergoing transplantation. Ninety-two of 121 patients (76%) survived 1 year after transplantation. Acetaminophen overdose was the most frequent cause (60 patients; 20%), followed by cryptogenic/non A non B non C (NANBNC; 15%), idiosyncratic drug reactions (12%), hepatitis B (10%), and hepatitis A (7%). Spontaneous survival rates were highest for patients with acetaminophen overdose (57%) and hepatitis A (40%) and lowest for those with Wilson’s disease (no survivors of 18 patients). The transplantation rate was highest for Wilson’s disease (17 of 18 patients; 94%) and lowest for autoimmune hepatitis (29%) and acetaminophen overdose (12%). Age did not differ between survivors and nonsurvivors, perhaps reflecting a selection bias for patients transferred to liver transplant centers. Coma grade on admission was not a significant determinant of outcome, but showed a trend toward affecting both survival and transplantation rate. These findings on retrospectively studied patients from the United States differ from those previously gathered in the United Kingdom and France, highlighting the need for further study of trends in each country. *
It seems here that ibruprofen & hydrocodone is better anyway.
CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study suggest that 2-tablet doses of combination hydrocodone 7.5 mg and ibuprofen 200 mg may be more effective than either 1-tablet doses of this combination or 2-tablet doses of combination codeine 30 mg and acetaminophen 300 mg. Moreover, 1-tablet doses of combination hydrocodone 7.5 mg and ibuprofen 200 mg may be as effective as 2-tablet doses of combination codeine 30 mg and acetaminophen 300 mg.
Hydrocodone comes in tablets with less Tylenol and more codine. I used those instead of the more common ones, to lesson the chance of liver damage. They were also strickly a quick fix, when the other pain medicines needed a short term help. They would likely be in a different classification of drugs if they were made differently. Once the classification type changed it would be hard for a person to get something short term for a tooth problem or back strain. Most people that need short term fixes for pain would not have a medicine that a doctor would prescribe them without hydrocodine available.
I use Norco 10, which is (as you probably know) Hydrocodone 10mg and 325 Acetominophen. Works, but sometimes I catch myself taking 8-10 a day, meaning, 2 at a time, 4-5 times a day, but my days are 16 hour days. So, I’m still taking 2500-3000 mg of tylenol daily.
I know they say don’t go over 4000mg in 24 hour period though. But honestly, hydrocodone is the ONLY thing I can function on without falling asleep throughout the day.
I don’t want to be borderline abusing the medication, but I just don’t have anything else to take. I have lumbar disc tramma and I am also obese, so maybe being overweight actually helps me with my tylenol intake.
Please talk to your MD about getting the ibruprofen with Hydrocodone formulae. That, varied with your rather large amount of Acetominophen +Hydrocodone, could cut your Acetominophen intake in half, or at least by a third. I am assuming your MD is watching your Hydrocodone intake carefully. But the dangers of Acetominophen are fairly newish and not fully known.
Watch your alcohol intake too, it can make Acetominophen twice as hard on the liver. Have your liver checked next visit, too.
Different brands made under different processes cam make a difference in how the medications woek. One may give you more of the diesired benefits thans another made by a different process.
The type your taking is the stronger one with less Tylenol. The effective duration is about four hours and you wait for it to take effect and you wait while it wears off before you take the next dose. It’s not the best long term pain management plan. Oxycontine is a longer term medicinie that can last upto twelve hours. I was on a pain management routine that I took one dose every eight hours. You get better management with the least least medicine. I switched to Morphine Sulfate, which is close to Oxycontine, but was more effective for me. It was also cheaper, but at the time I needed the pain control more than the difference in price. It was the least tiring of the pain medicines. The also had been on a muscle relaxer to stop spasms and other problems. My hand, arm or leg would just jerk and send things flying accross the room into a wall. I woke up a few time suspended over the bed and falling back down. I would contract my leg and arm muscles and arch my back while sleeping. I broke the bed at least three times, when I crashed back down onto it. The combination of the small doses of the correct medicines did a lot better result than a large dose of one thing. I can tell you one goood thing about my illness. I have a higher threshold before I start doing vocal tics.
I had blood tests for liver problems every 3 months, if nothing new happened.
Being over weight increases the strain on the liver. It’s filtering out the medicine that is a problem. The problem has nothing to do with concentrations through out the rest of your body.