Serious adverse reactions associated with oxycodone use include: respiratory depression, respiratory arrest, circulatory depression, cardiac arrest, hypotension, and/or shock.
The common adverse events seen on initiation of therapy with oxycodone are dose dependent and are typical opioid-related side effects. Their frequency depends on the clinical setting, the patient’s level of opioid tolerance, and host factors specific to the individual. They should be expected and managed as a part of opioid therapy. The most frequent adverse events include nausea, constipation, vomiting, headache, and pruritus.
The frequency of adverse events during initiation of opioid therapy may be minimized by careful individualization of starting dosage, slow titration and the avoidance of large rapid swings in plasma concentration of the opioid. Many of these common adverse events may abate as therapy is continued and some degree of tolerance is developed, but others may be expected to remain throughout therapy.
In all patients for whom dosing information was available (n=191) from the open-label and double-blind studies involving immediate-release oxycodone, the following adverse events were recorded in oxycodone treated patients with an incidence ≥ 3%. In descending order of frequency they were: nausea, constipation, vomiting, headache, pruritus, insomnia, dizziness, asthenia, and somnolence.
The following adverse experiences occurred in less than 3% of patients involved in clinical trials with oxycodone:
Body as a Whole: abdominal pain, accidental injury, allergic reaction, back pain, chills and fever, fever, flu syndrome, infection, neck pain, pain, photosensitivity reaction, and sepsis.
Cardiovascular: deep thrombophlebitis, heart failure, hemorrhage, hypotension, migraine, palpitation, and tachycardia.
Digestive: anorexia, diarrhea, dyspepsia, dysphagia, gingivitis, glossitis, and nausea and vomiting.
Hemic and Lymphatic: anemia and leukopenia.
Metabolic and Nutritional: edema, gout, hyperglycemia, iron deficiency anemia and peripheral edema.
Musculoskeletal: arthralgia, arthritis, bone pain, myalgia and pathological fracture.
Nervous: agitation, anxiety, confusion, dry mouth, hypertonia, hypesthesia, nervousness, neuralgia, personality disorder, tremor, and vasodilation.
Respiratory: bronchitis, cough increased, dyspnea, epistaxis, laryngismus, lung disorder, pharyngitis, rhinitis, and sinusitis.
Skin and Appendages: herpes simplex, rash, sweating, and urticaria.
Special Senses: amblyopia.
Urogenital: urinary tract infection