PtProtect® – Interpreting Results
Promoting pain relief and preventing abuse of prescription pain medications is a critical balancing act.
For that reason, caution must be used when interpreting opiate/opioid results since commonly prescribed opiates (codeine) and opioids (hydrocodone and oxycodone) metabolize to active opiate and opioid drugs (codeine → morphine, hydrocodone → hydromorphone, and oxycodone → oxymorphone). which are also available by prescription.
Metabolic Considerations
In addition to the major metabolism that occurs in standard doses of opiates and opioids, when high doses of codeine or morphine are used in tolerant patients, “minor” metabolites can occur from commonly prescribed opioids (codeine → hydrocodone, and morphine → hydromorphone).
The complex biotransformation (metabolism) of opiates and opioids is shown in the diagram below.
Implications
Determining the source of a detected opiate/opioid can be difficult and requires clinical correlation.