Dihydrocodeine - Indications

Indications

Approved indication for dihydrocodeine is the management of moderate to moderately severe pain as well as coughing and shortness of breath. As is the case with other drugs in this group, the antitussive dose tends to be less than the analgesic dose, and dihydrocodeine is a powerful cough suppressant like all other members of the immediate codeine family (see below) and their cousins hydrocodone, oxycodone and ethylmorphine (a.k.a. dionine and codethyline), whole opium preparations, and the strong opioid hydromorphone.

For use against pain, dihydrocodeine is usually formulated as tablets or capsules containing a quarter grain (15 or 16 mg) or a half grain (30 or 32 mg) with or without other active ingredients such as aspirin, paracetamol (acetaminophen), ibuprofen, or others. The usual dose is one tablet taken every 4–6 hours when necessary.

Controlled-release dihydrocodeine is available for both pain and coughing as indicated below as waxy tablets containing 60 to 120 mg of the drug, and some formulations intended for use against coughing and the like have other active ingredients such as antihistamines, decongestants and others. Generally, the starting dose would be 60 mg every 12 hours. Other oral formulations such as packets of effervescent powder, sublingual drops, elixirs and the like are also available in many places.

Injectable dihydrocodeine is most often given as a deep subcutaneous shot.

The above doses are typical starting doses for "opioid naïve" patients. Existing tolerance to opioids and more severe pain (up to about 6 or 7 on a 1 to 10 scale perhaps) call for higher doses; dihydrocodeine may be more like hydrocodone and oxycodone than codeine and ethylmorphine in lacking a theoretical analgesic ceiling, but toxicity of other ingredients (especially aspirin and paracetamol) and/or the side effects of the opioid itself—especially vasodilation, itching, and other effects of the large quantities of histamine released in the body—generally supervene and thus limit dihydrocodeine to the middle range of painkillers, viz. between ethylmorphine and nicocodeine on the continuum. Controlled-release dihydrocodeine is often taken every 8 hours and even 6 especially when titrating the dose in chronic pain cases and similar situations. Different authorities list the maximum daily dose for dihydrocodeine as being anywhere from 240 mg to 720 mg, all other things being equal.

Dihydrocodeine products which can be purchased over the counter in many European and Pacific Rim countries generally contain from 2 to 20 mg of dihydrocodeine per dosing unit combined with one or more other active ingredients such as paracetamol, aspirin, ibuprofen, antihistamines, decongestants, vitamins, medicinal herb preparations and other such ingredients. In a subset of these countries and foreign possessions, 30 mg tablets and 60 mg controlled-release tablets are available over the counter and chemists may very well be able to dispense the 90 and 120 mg strengths at their discretion.

In the United States, the most common analgesic brands with DHC are: DHC Plus (16 and 32 mg), Panlor SS (32 mg), ZerLor (32 mg), Panlor DC (16 mg) and Synalgos DC (16 mg). These combination products also include paracetamol (acetaminophen) and caffeine. Aspirin is used in the case of Synalgos DC.

The Panlor series is manufactured by Pan-American Laboratories of Covington, Louisiana, and they also market several dihydrocodeine-based prescription cough syrups in the United States.

Dihydrocodeine is sometimes marketed in combination preparations with paracetamol as co-dydramol (BAN) to provide greater pain relief than either agent used singly (q.v. drug synergy).

In the UK and other countries, 30-mg tablets containing only dihydrocodeine as the active ingredient are available, also a 40-mg Dihydrocodeine tablet is available in the UK as DF-118 Forte.

The original dihydrocodeine product, Paracodin, is an elixir of dihydrocodeine hydroiodide also available as a Tussionex-style suspension in many European countries.

In many European countries and elsewhere in the world, the most commonly found dihydrocodeine preparations are extended-release tablets made by encasing granules of the ingredient mixture, almost always using the bitartrate salt of dihydrocodeine, of four different sizes in a wax-based binder. The usual strengths are 60, 90, and 120 mg. These tablets are used in some countries, such as Austria, as an alternative to methadone (MS-Contin/MST-Continus type medications and buprenorphine are also used for this purpose) for management of opiate addiction. Common trade names for the extended-release tablets are Didor Continus, Codidol, Codi-Contin, Dicodin (made in France and the major product containing the tartrate salt), Contugesic, and DHC Continus.

Dihydrocodeine is available in Japan as tablets which contain 2½ mg of dihydrocodeine phosphate and caffeine, the decongestant d,l-methylephedrine HCl, and the antihistamine chlorpheniramine, and packets of granules which effervesce like Alka-Seltzer with 10 mg of dihydrocodeine with lysozyme and chlorpheniramine, marketed for OTC sale as New Bron Solution-ACE. These two formulations may have once contained phenyltoloxamine citrate as the antihistamine component. The manufacturer of New Bron Solution-ACE; SS Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd, also markets an ibuprofen with dihydrocodeine product called S.Tac EVE, which also includes d,l-methylephedrine HCl, chlorpheniramine, anhydrous caffeine, and vitamins B1 and C. Elsewhere in the Pacific Rim and elsewhere, Dicogesic in analogous to Glaxo/Smith-Kline's DF-118.

Dihydrocodeine is also the original member and chemical base of a number of similar semi-synthetic opiates such as acetyldihydrocodeine, dihydrocodeine enol acetate, dihydroisocodeine, nicocodeine, and nicodicodeine.