Posted by Larry Hoover on April 9, 2005, at 18:19:16
In reply to Re: Oxycontin for mental health....WOW!!!!!!!!! » jerrympls, posted by flipsactown on April 8, 2005, at 1:31:29
> I had been taking Tylenol-Codeine 3, 60mg x 5 times daily for years and finally decided to try the Oxycontin since I heard it was long lasting.
> I did not experience any withdrawals from my years of taking Codeine. I went for weeks or months without taking any Codeine, just to prove to myself that I was not addicted.
All I have to say is Wow!
Codeine is slowly desmethylated to morphine....at least for most people, that's what happens. It's like slow release morphine, but the rate of conversion is highly dependent on a liver enzyme that functions at different rates in different people.
Your absence of withdrawal leads me to believe that perhaps your 2D6 enzyme (the enzyme in question) doesn't work at all, and you got a pure codeine effect. If I'm not mistaken, oxycodone also is activated by that same enzyme. (Have I got that right, ed?) Total dysfunction of 2D6 might happen in 0.1 to 1% of people.
Perhaps that explains your unusual history? I'm not suggesting there's anything untrue or suchlike about what you've described....it just doesn't fit with what you'd expect.
What most amazes me, really, (I know you said nothing about this at all) is that you could take that dose of codeine and still have bowel movements. Codeine is very constipating at high doses. Maybe the worst of them all, on a mg per mg basis? If not the worst, it's near the top of that infamous list.
Total dysfunction of 2D6 might happen in 0.1 to 1% of people.
Thanks for your input. It's really important to try and understand just how variable the effects of drugs really are.
Lar
poster:Larry Hoover
thread:479222
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20050408/msgs/482117.html