Answer to your Question

Answered By: Addiction Specialist

Answer: Vicodin contains two drugs, hydrocodone and acetaminophen. Acetaminophen is also known as Tylenol and is found in many medications. It’s primary effect is to reduce pain and fever. Hydrocodone is an opiate, a drug class that includes heroin, morphine, codeine, and many other drugs. Like all other opiates, hydrocodone is addictive and causes tolerance and withdrawal meaning that more and more of the drug are required to achieve the same effect and after prolonged use, stopping or cutting down causes an unpleasant withdrawal syndrome. One of the unfortunate aspects of Vivodin addiction is that as addicts increase their dose to get more hydrocodone, they can end up taking toxic amounts of acetaminophen. Hyrdrocodone, like all drugs of abuse, causes an increase in a substance called dopamine in an area of the brain called the nucleus accumbens. While the biology of addiction is still poorly understood, it is believed that this change in brain chemistry is related to the development of an addiction

Answered on: November 14, 2008