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Can The Opiate Crises Affect Getting Prescriptions For Codeine?

Posted on Thu, 28 Dec 2023

Question: Thank you for this service. I am a 67 year old woman who lives with a 4 inch colon due to surgery for Crohn's Disease in 1969. At the time I was first set up with an ileostomy but after 15 years in 1984 I had the courage to reconnect my bowel and have been using codeine suphate for constipating my colon since that time. Now that there is an opiate crisis I am concerned about getting my precriptions refilled. My regular gastorenterologist has been out sick for over a month and the younger doctors in the practice have refused to fill my prescription and I am getting rather nervous considering ordering my pills online from a British pharmacy but it seem that they are only offering codeine phosphate and I have been using codeine sulphate. Can I substitute one for the other and is one more effective than the other. Please advise.

Answered by Dr. Dr.Dorina Gurabardhi (1 hour later)

Brief Answer:

The difference is minimal because codeine is the active ingredient

Detailed Answer:

Hello,

I am sorry that you have gone through all this to take your medication.

In my opinion, the amount of codeine is important because codeine is the active ingredient.

So the difference between codeine sulfate and codeine phosphate is minimal.

The biggest difference is water solubility.

I would suggest codeine sulfate because is more water soluble but as I said the difference is minimal so don't worry.

Hope I have answered your query.

Take care

Regards,
Dr Dorina Gurabardhi, General & Family Physician

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Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Arnab Banerjee