Dilaudid Side Effects, Long-Term Effects, Interactions & Fact Sheet

What Are The Most Typical Dilaudid Side Effects?

Dilaudid Side Effects Include:

• Nausea, vomiting, constipation, sweating, flushing, or dry mouth.
• Constipation. To prevent constipation consult with a healthcare professional and consider consuming more fiber, drinking more water, and exercising.
• Dizziness, lightheadedness, and drowsiness. To decrease the risk of lightheadedness and falling, get up gradually when rising from a seating or lying position.

What Are the Common Long-Term Effects Of Taking Dilaudid?

If taken regularly for a long time, hydromorphone or Dilaudid side effects can induce physical dependence and addiction to the drug. This means your body becomes more and more tolerant of the drug requiring an every increasing dose to function. Eventually higher doses to get the same pain relief lead to reliance and addiction to the drug. You may feel Dilaudid withdrawal symptoms when you stop taking the drug.

How long Does Dilaudid Pain Medication Last For?

The painkiller activity generally lasts for better than 5 hours. Similar to other opioids, hydromorphone or Dilaudid produces euphoria or feelings of peace, diminished anxiety, respiratory depression, sedation, papillary constriction, and even cough suppression.

How Strong Is Dilaudid For Pain Relief?

Dilaudid is approximately eight times stronger than morphine. The drug Dilaudid is a highly powerful opioid painkiller that should only be dispensed to people who have shown that they can tolerate opioid medications.

What is Dilaudid?

Medical professionals typically prescribe Dilaudid for pain related to cancer and other serious injuries, such as severe burns or multiple fractures. Like other opioids, hydromorphone works by interacting with parts of the brain in charge of pain. Opioids also affect parts of the brain responsible for motivation and happiness. Some people misuse the drug as Dilaudid side affects can get you high, and the large doses overwhelm the brain’s pleasure center.

The action of Dilaudid takes effect within 15 minutes, and its pain-relieving effects last up to six hours. Dilaudid is habit-forming and is commonly abused amongst consumers for its potent euphoric effects, which have been described as being similar to that of Heroin. Dilaudid side effects can range from mild to severe. However, you should never ignore any of them. Recognizing the hydromorphone adverse effects puts you on the path to helping your loved one seek prescription drug addiction treatment.

Popular Dilaudid Street Names

Street names for Dilaudid usually highlight a particular aspect of the brand involved in terms of its effects, color, or form. People use street names to hide their drug activity from others.

Why is this Medication Prescribed?

Like other opioid medications, Dilaudid is primarily used for pain relief. Opioids work by physically blocking the pain signals that reach the brain by decreasing pain intensity and improving the patient’s emotional response to it. Because the source of the pain can vary depending on each patient’s circumstances, Dilaudid may be prescribed to some people and not others.

The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that physicians use a three-step ladder for managing pain with opioids like Dilaudid. First, non-opioid, over-the-counter medications like aspirin, ibuprofen, and acetaminophen control the patient’s discomfort. If these drugs prove ineffective, mild opioids like codeine are prescribed. If this still does not do enough to relieve the patient’s pain, potent opioids like oxycodone and Dilaudid are prescribed.

Dilaudid Side Effects

As an opiate painkiller, the Dilaudid side effects will likely include drowsiness, nausea, euphoria, constipation, difficulty urinating, vomiting, and suppressed breathing ability. If an individual continues to abuse this drug, the a higher risk they will experience Dilaudid side effects such as addiction, guilt, depression, track marks up and down the arms and legs, intense cravings for the drug, and a dread of the withdrawal sickness that will result from not having the drug to abuse.

Most Common Dilaudid Side Effects Reported

How Does Dilaudid Affect The Body?

Respiratory depression

• Dilaudid affects the respiratory center in the brain through action on the opioid receptors.
• This induces a slowing down of respirations, and the breathing pattern can become irregular.
• This can result in reduced gas exchange with elevated carbon dioxide and oxygen levels in the body.
• Overdose of Dilaudid can also cause respiratory arrest.

The feeling of high and addiction

• In altering the perception of pain in the brain, Dilaudid promotes more dopamine in the brain.
• Increased dopamine in the brain produces a high feeling by interacting with the brain’s reward circuit.
• This feeling of high, experienced by the individuals on Dilaudid use, becomes highly desirable and thus adds to the potential for addiction to Dilaudid.
• This makes Dilaudid one of the most commonly abused drugs.

Tolerance and addiction

• Individuals taking Dilaudid at a recommended dose for a prolonged time develop tolerance to the drug and experience blunting the therapeutic response to Dilaudid at that dose.
• Diminishing therapeutic response prompts an individual to increase the dose of medication intake to derive the desired effect.
• This sets the cycle for addiction and abuse.

Withdrawal syndrome

• Reducing your dosage gradually over time is the preferred way to quit Dilaudid.
• Sudden Dilaudid withdrawal may induce unpleasant sensations, such as nausea, vomiting, intense muscle aches, sleep disturbances, abdominal cramps, and diarrhea.

How does Dilaudid Affect the Brain?

Hydromorphone, one of the main chemicals found in Dilaudid, is a full opioid agonist affecting the mu-opioid receptors. So what happens in the brain when you take Dilaudid?

When you take Dilaudid, the hydromorphone binds to mu receptors, creating analgesia. It also causes pain relief. Although the precise mechanism of the analgesic action is unknown, opioid receptors throughout the brain and spinal cord are thought to play a key role in the analgesic effects of Dilaudid.

Dilaudid is also known to cause respiratory depression, directly affecting the brain system’s respiratory centers. Respiratory depression is a state of reduced brain responsiveness to increases in blood gas tension and electrical stimulation. Finally, Dilaudid is known to cause excessive constriction of the eye pupil, even in total darkness. Pinpoint pupils are usually the first sign of an opioid overdose.

Why does Dilaudid Cause Itching?

Itching is a possible side effect of Dilaudid for certain users. Dilaudid itching can be severe in some cases, with users reporting severe itching all over their bodies. Those who experience it commonly ask, “Why does Dilaudid make you itch?” Unfortunately, the exact reasons are not clearly defined.

There may be treatment available to alleviate itching discomfort. For example, Phenergan is a commonly prescribed medication for itching. However, taking Dilaudid with Phenergan is not recommended since it can increase Dilaudid side effects like confusion, dizziness, and drowsiness. This combination can also cause several other adverse effects, with the potential for new Dilaudid side effects to develop over time. These include pneumonia, constipation, dependence, and hepatic necrosis.

How Long Does Dilaudid Stay in your System?

The amount of time that Dilaudid stays in your system largely depends on how it was taken, how often it is taken, and how long it has been used. Generally speaking, the half-life of Dilaudid is between 2 to 4 hours when taken orally and 1 to 2 hours when injected. This means that if you take a single dose of 8 mg orally, then approximately 4 mg will remain in your system after 4 hours for an oral dose.

When ingested regularly over an extended period of time or at high doses, Dilaudid can build up in the body resulting in higher plasma levels than would be achieved with a single dose. In these cases, its elimination from the body may take anywhere from 12 to 36 hours.

It should also be noted that how long Dilaudid stays in the body can vary from person to person and is affected by individual metabolic rates. Because of this, it’s impossible to give an exact timeline for how long Dilaudid will remain in the system. Nevertheless, these general guidelines should help you have a better understanding of how long Dilaudid typically stays in your system.

Finally, if you’re concerned about how long Dilaudid might stay in your system and how it could affect a drug test, then it’s best to speak with your doctor. They can provide more specific information that’s tailored to you and can advise you on how long you should avoid taking Dilaudid before any drug testing.

Effects of Dilaudid Addiction

Dilaudid addiction typically starts from using the drug as directed. Sometimes from pain and other times simply for the feeling of euphoria, patients will increase their dose on their own. Over time, the patient needs more Dilaudid to feel the same effect as the opioid receptors in the body start desensitizing. This increases the potential abuse when a patient needs the drug during long-term treatment. 

Administering more Dilaudid than needed at once or continuing the use over a long period, mixed with any of the risk factors mentioned above, makes a perfect cocktail for addiction.

Dilaudid Side Effects and Overdose 

Dilaudid overdose isn’t always fatal. But people can die from an overdose, especially if it isn’t treated properly and urgently. In 2014 alone, more than 14,000 people died from prescription opioid overdoses. Even those who survive a Dilaudid overdose may be left with harmful after-effects.

Other complications of Dilaudid overdose include:

• Permanent brain damage due to lack of oxygen to the brain.
• Muscle damage from lying on a hard surface for a significant period
• Pneumonia (often secondary to aspirated gastric contents)

The FDA cites the following as signs of a Dilaudid overdose:

• Shallow, slow breaths or trouble breathing
• Drowsiness
• Possible loss of consciousness or falling into a coma
• Lack of muscle tone or flaccid skeletal musculature
• Cold or clammy skin
• Constricted pupils
• Low blood pressure
• Weak pulse or slow heart rate

Anytime too much of the drug is introduced into the bloodstream at once, an overdose is possible. However, the method of taking Dilaudid can impact overdose. Snorting, smoking, or injecting it sends the full drug dosage very quickly across the barrier between a person’s blood and brain and can raise the risk of overdose. The FDA warns that injecting Dilaudid may increase the risk of suffering from an overdose by resulting in a collapse of the circulatory system, cardiac arrest, or apnea.

Effects & Symptoms of Withdrawal from Dilaudid

It is a rare person who can abuse an opioid as strong as Dilaudid and not get addicted. For most people, continued use will make it difficult to quit when they want to. Getting clean and sober means they have to get through the typical opiate withdrawal symptoms, which can indicate some days of pain, sickness, and misery.

Dilaudid withdrawal symptoms will include the following:

• Muscle pain
• Body cramps
• Insomnia
• Vomiting
• Tremors, shaking, and restlessness
• Severe cold sweats
• Diarrhea
• “Dysphoria”—is defined as a feeling of depression, anxiety, and unease

The usual list of effects of opiate withdrawal will also include a runny nose, goosebumps, and yawning. Still, these rather harmless symptoms minimize the severe sickness that typically occurs when a person tries to get off drugs “cold turkey.”

According to the National Institutes of Health, it can be possible to detect withdrawal symptoms after just a week of Dilaudid administration. Physical dependence is likely to be significant after several weeks of administration. Some drug users report that they go through withdrawal from Dilaudid use after just a few days or a week of use at home or in the hospital.

But what also happens is that a person in this situation gets sick with withdrawal symptoms but just thinks they came down with the flu after leaving the hospital. They recover and never realize they went through an opiate withdrawal after their medical care.

Top Asked Dilaudid Questions

Dilaudid Side Effects and Addiction Treatment 

Dilaudid Detox

We need to be transparent about the topic of detox. It will not be an easy process. A person will likely experience many different Dilaudid side effects from their drug use. These Dilaudid side effects may be emotional, physical, or mental. During the detox process, someone in withdrawal will likely experience many uncomfortable feelings and negative thoughts about life. Unfortunately, for those with dependency, detox is an unavoidable first step to recovery

Please, do not try to detox on your own. The Dilaudid detox process can be painful and difficult without medical assistance. Getting through the detox process is crucial for continued treatment.

Dilaudid Detox Medications

Buprenorphine

Using it with Naloxone can lower the risk of someone developing a dependence. This happens as Buprenorphine alleviates the pain and discomfort caused by withdrawal. Naloxone blocks the euphoria that Opioids can bring if the patient relapses.

Methadone

Methadone is one of the most common treatment medications for people suffering from opioid withdrawal.

Naltrexone

Naltrexone functions in the body as an Opioid-agonist. If you used it while Dilaudid was still in their system, you could experience severe withdrawal symptoms. Naltrexone is only prescribed after the individual has been off Opioids for at least 7 to 10 days.

Clonidine

Clonidine is a non-opioid used to relieve anxiety, agitation, cramping, and tension. It also helps regulate blood pressure and pulse while reducing cravings.

Another detox method some doctors provide involves a rapid anesthesia process. The addicted person is first given medication to relax. Then a doctor puts them under general anesthesia and injects the patient with a drug that blocks the effects of Dilaudid. The providers of this method claim it speeds up the withdrawal process, and there are fewer withdrawal symptoms after.

Dilaudid Side Effects Video

Discover the origins of Dilaudid, a powerful opioid analgesic derived from morphine. Known by its brand name, Dilaudid, this drug is a double-edged sword—offering relief from severe pain but posing a risk of abuse and dependency.