Oxycodone - What Is It Made Of?

What Is It Made Of?

Oxycodone is created from thebaine, one of twenty alkaloidA nitrogen-containing substance found in plants. compounds in the opium poppy plant. Of the various alkaloids in opium, the most important are morphine, codeine, and thebaine. Thebaine does relieve pain, but it also causes the opposite of euphoria, better known as dysphoria (diss-FOR-ee-yuh), a feeling of depression and anxiety. Thebaine is altered to form oxycodone. The drug works more like morphine and codeine. At comparable doses, oxycodone is not as strong as morphine but is stronger than codeine.

When mixed with over-the-counter analgesics such as aspirin or acetaminophen, oxycodone provides a boost of pain relief beyond the power of the over-the-counter drugs. These products come in pill or liquid form. OxyContin, which also comes in pill form, is simply oxycodone hydrochloride with no other active ingredients. The oxycodone is embedded in a slow-dissolving, inactive compound that releases the medicine into the bloodstream at regular intervals. Because the drug releases slowly, each OxyContin pill has a high dose of the drug, much more than the patient needs hour by hour.