Oxycodone Addiction

Oxycodone Addiction

Oxycodone addiction results from painkiller dependency and overuse that has not been treated medically.

Oxycodone addiction stems from physical prescription drug dependency, which can be medically treated and reversed.  Dependency comes from over-prescribed, overused treatment.

Oxycodone, despite its pain-relief function, often poses problems for patients. “Right now it’s one of the most abused prescription drugs,” one Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) official reported to Newsweek Magazine (i). “It is certainly the most dangerous.”

More facts about Oxycodone.

Patients tending toward Oxycodone addiction typically self-medicate for legitimate pain management, caused by:

• Acute or chronic physical pain
• Depressive or traumatic psychological pain
• Other disorders such as ADD, fibromyalgia, and insomnia.
• Or, recreational drug experimentation for euphoria.

Many Oxycodone addiction patients report increasing dosage to gain anesthetic effects, in turn creating physical dependency.

Oxycodone Addiction Statistics

The DEA reports that some 1.9 million Americans have taken Oxycodone for illicit use. (ii)

More patients turn to pharmaceutical painkillers to relieve more than just medical pain. Illegitimate use of Oxycodone has reportedly been tied to celebrities, indicating how non-medical use skyrockets, making patients prone to Oxycodone addiction.

By function, Oxycodone locks onto the brain’s mu opiate receptors. This obstructs the transmission of spinal cord pain messages. At high doses, Oxycodone signals the body to manufacture dopamine in the brain, and produces a similar elation as evoked by street drugs.

More about Oxycodone side effects.

Oxycodone Addiction vs. Dependency

Although rare for a patient with no history of substance abuse to become addicted when using it correctly, prolonged, high dosage causes dependency and Oxycodone addiction, risking overdose, if not treated.

More about Oxycodone overdose.

Dr. Paul D. Goldenheim, the manufacturer’s chief scientist, distinguishes between ‘dependency’ and ‘addiction’. Patients taking Oxycodone long enough will become physically dependent and--if stopped--suffer withdrawal syndrome:

• Pain
• Restlessness
• Nausea
• Other symptoms.

Oxycodone addiction patients experience psychological craving as well. This craving returns after the physical dependence subsides, often leading to illicit acts to maintain supply.

Oxycodone Addiction Detox

As the failed attempts of many patients coming from other programs can attest, Oxycodone addiction is notoriously hard to break. Residential facilities providing medical supervision and psychological counseling, as well as traditional 12-step detox programs, report between 50 to 80% relapse within months to one year. (iii)

Other patients turn to a decade-old protocol to get clean, referred to as ‘rapid detoxification’. It involves a quick, non-opiate induced-withdrawal under anesthesia.

Learn more about Oxycodone detox.

The Waismann Method of Rapid Detoxification pioneered the anesthesia-assisted technique, which takes three to four days and claims a 65% one-year success rate.

The Waismann Method of Rapid Detoxification

We view addiction as distinct from physical dependence. Dependency is a medical condition that requires a medical procedure. Oxycodone patients do not have to rely on old painful and ineffective methods of detox any longer.

The Waismann Method of Rapid Detoxification reverses opiate dependency, for patients to live opiate-free from Oxycodone addiction.

(ii) at least once.

(iii) Ibid, Adler.