Symptoms vicodin addiction

Long-term use of these drugs will ultimately cause fundamental and long-lasting changes in the brain, which explains why people cannot just quit on their own, and why treatment is necessary. As a result, drugs of abuse take control over the brain’s normal pleasure and motivational systems, shifting drug use to the highest priority in the person’s hierarchy of needs, therefore overriding all other needs and desires. These changes in brain are responsible for the urge to seek and use drugs that we have come to define as addiction. This is probably the state people are in when they are reportedly “doctor shopping,” faking illnesses, and stealing from pharmacies to get the drug.
Luckily, there is a number of effective options to treat vicodin addiction and to help control the sometime serious withdrawal syndrome that occurs together with sudden stop of drug use. These possibilities are drawn from experience and clinical research regarding the treatment of heroin addiction. They involve drugs, such as methadone and LAAM (levo-alpha-acetyl-methadol), and behavioral counseling treatment methods.
Normally, the patient is medically detoxified before any treatment approach starts. Desoute if the fact that detoxification in itself is not considered a treatment for vicodin addiction, it can help reduce withdrawal symptoms and at the same time the patient can adjust to being drug free. When the patient’s detoxification is complete, the treatment provider must then work with the patient to establish which type of treatment would best serve the needs of the patient.
Withdrawal Symptoms
The hydrocodone component of Vicodin makes it very addictive. Hydrocodone is an opioid so Vicodin addiction symptoms can be very similar to heroin abuse. Similarly, a decision to stop the addiction can result in serious withdrawal symptoms such as physical bone and muscle pain, anxiety, sleeping problems, vomiting, uncontrolled leg movements, diarrhea, loss of appetite, irritability, nausea, sweating, chills and cold flashes. Such withdrawal symptoms depend on the severity of addiction and may grow stronger for the first 24 to 48 hours. However, it frequently diminishes gradually within the next few weeks, and these symptoms are bearable and not lethal.

Vicodin is an opioid, usually prescribed by doctors due to its effective analgesic and pain relieving features. Many studies have gave evidence that appropriately controlled medical application of pain killer compounds is safe and rarely leads to addiction. Taken exactly as prescribed, opioids can be used to efficiently control pain.
Opioids work by means of attaching to certain proteins called opioids receptors, which can be found in the brain, spinal cord, and gastrointestinal tract. When these compounds attach to certain opioids receptors in the brain and spinal cord, they can effectively alter the way a person feels pain. Additionally, opioids, such as vicodin, can affect regions of the brain that decide on what is perceived as pleasure, leading to the initial euphoria that many opioids produce.
Chronic use of vicodin can lead to resistance to the medications, and as a resutl higher doses must be administered in order to get the same initial results. Long-term use can also result in physical dependence, as the body adapts to the presence of the substance and withdrawal symptoms appear if use is suddenly reduced. Patients taking prescribed opioids drugs should not only be given these medications under proper medical control, but also should be medically supervised when they stop the use in order to diminish or avoid withdrawal symptoms. Symptoms of withdrawal can involve anxiety muscle and bone pain, problems with sleep, diarrhea, vomiting, cold flashes with goose bumps (“cold turkey”), and uncontrolled leg movements. People who become addicted to vicodin can be successfully treated. Possibilities of effectively treating vicodin addiction are drawn from research on treating heroin addiction.