Will I Experience Withdrawal Symptoms When Switching From One Type of Opiate Medication to Another?

Question by Travis P: Will I experience withdrawal symptoms when switching from one type of opiate medication to another?
I currently take Oxymorphone and am switching to oxycodone. Will I experience withdrawal from the morphine when I stop taking it and start the oxycodone or will any form of opiate be enough to keep the withdrawal away? I take opiates because of a condition I have that causes me to have constant severe pain.

Best answer:

Answer by David S
Even though it seems like they are both the “same,” these drugs do have slightly different compositions. It’s possible you may go through some withdrawl symptoms.

However research has also shown that chronic pain subjects do not respond to opiates in the same way as someone taking the drug “recreationally.” There are different neuropeptide responses and withdrawl doesn’t always happen or it happens in physiologically different ways.

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