Medications not working well - Extraction of opioids other than oxy/hydrocodone?

[kailey_elise]

If someone had access to a large amount of hydromorphone pills and methadone pills, is it possible to do any kind of extraction process on them?

My friend (who's in chronic pain and has them prescribed)'s pharmacy switched the company they get these two medications from, apparently. "SF's" 10mg methadone pills used to be smaller; now they are much larger and say "methadose" on them. The hydromorphone tablets are about the same size, but a different color.

Now, technically (as the doctors would say), it shouldn't matter, as the active ingredient is the same, but we all know in reality it *DOES* matter. "SF" says the new methadone doesn't last as long - "SF" can feel it starting to wear off, which was never experienced on the smaller pills. The new hydromorphone doesn't seem to work as well, and also gives "SF" horrible heartburn (similar to the feeling "SF" gets when ingesting Vicodin), which are new things.

Prior to the company switch, "SF" had no problem just taking 6-8mg for the breakthrough pain; now 12mg of the Dilaudid barely seems to help and causes major stomach upset.

Extraction should help this, right? These could be reactions to the binders and fillers, which are apparently different in this company's tablets, since "SF" didn't have trouble before.

Thank you in advance,

~K.Elise

[MrJim]

What "SF" can be starting to feel is tolerance building. It happens relatively quickly with opioids. Extraction is normally to remove the APAP from the pills, and these pills don't have any right?
Are they controlled release or something along those lines?
If there are problems with the generic medication, speak to the doctor about it - Binders and fillers are all more or less the same.
If you answer these q's we can get a little closer to the heart of the matter.

[kailey_elise]

Originally Posted by MrJim

What "SF" can be starting to feel is tolerance building. It happens relatively quickly with opioids. Extraction is normally to remove the APAP from the pills, and these pills don't have any right?
Are they controlled release or something along those lines?
If there are problems with the generic medication, speak to the doctor about it - Binders and fillers are all more or less the same.
If you answer these q's we can get a little closer to the heart of the matter.

Sorry it's taken me so long to respond - I can read the forum any time, but access to a computer for replying is spotty for me. _sigh_

The difference with the generic methadone vs. methadose has been noticed by SF over the last few years, as occassionally SF's pharmacy would get the larger methadose brand instead. The problems with the hydromorphone are new, as this is the first time SF has experienced a different brand. SF is well aware of tolerence issues and doesn't seem to think that's the issue at hand.

I understand that extractions are usually done to remove the APAP in pills, but doesn't it remove the binders as well? I mean, surely you can remove the binders in order to, say, inject it or something. It's just that all I've ever read is either how to extract from codeine and hydro/oxycodone, and if anyone asks about anything else, "RTFM". _rolls eyes_

SF would have no issues doing an extraction and then parsing out regular doses (ie., 50 tablets went in, so dividing what's left after processing by 50). At the large doses SF is on, it's probably good to lose all the binders and fillers anyhow - who knows what problems they might be causing?

I suppose SF and I wondered if something they use as a filler might be blocking out some of the active ingredient. Like, drinking grapefruit juice can make certain drugs more potent...could there be something like that that would make a drug less potent that might possibly be used as a filler?

It's just hard to believe that ALL OF A SUDDEN, after ALL THESE YEARS, the same doses don't work and require doubling, and it just happened to be at the same time as a company switch. ;->

Thanks again,

~K.Elise

[Yeahsme]

In usa our government has just recently opened the doors for generic drugs to be shipped from all over the world to your local neighborhood pharmacy without them being checked. BUY BRAND NAME.