What Does Codeine Do to Your Stomach
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Codeine is an opioid medicine, and like other opioids it does far more than dull pain or calm a cough. One of the places where its effects show up earliest, and most stubbornly, is the stomach and the gut. Many people who use codeine regularly notice the change within days: food sits heavy, the bowels slow down, nausea creeps in, and meals that used to be simple become something to dread. These are not rare side effects tucked away in small print. They are among the most common reasons people struggle with codeine, and they are also among the easiest to dismiss, because stomach trouble feels ordinary at first. A missed bowel movement, a queasy morning, a meal left half finished — each one on its own seems small. Together, over weeks and months, they can change how a person eats, sleeps, works and feels.
This article explains, in plain words, what codeine does to the stomach: why it slows digestion, why constipation is so common, how nausea and vomiting develop, what cramps and bloating mean, how appetite and weight are affected, and which warning signs should never be ignored. It is general information, not individual medical advice. Codeine is a controlled medicine in many countries, and it carries real risks, including dependence and breathing problems. If you are worried about your health, or about someone else who uses codeine, a qualified health professional is the right person to talk to.
How Codeine Reaches the Gut
To understand why codeine upsets the stomach, it helps to know that the gut has its own network of nerves and its own opioid receptors. These are the same kind of docking points that codeine acts on in the brain, and they are spread through the walls of the stomach and intestines. When codeine is swallowed, it travels through the bloodstream and reaches the gut as well as the brain. In the brain it dulls pain signals. In the gut it does something quite different: it tells the muscles of the digestive tract to slow down and contract less often. Food that should keep moving along at a steady pace begins to crawl, and the whole process of digestion stretches out far longer than it should.
The gut normally works in waves. Muscles squeeze in a coordinated rhythm, pushing food forward, mixing it with digestive juices, and moving waste toward the bowel. Codeine disrupts that rhythm. The waves become weaker and less frequent, and parts of the gut may squeeze without moving anything forward at all. The result is a kind of traffic jam inside the body. Food stays in the stomach longer, so a person feels full after only a few bites. Waste stays in the large intestine longer, so water is drawn out of it and it becomes hard and dry. Gas builds up behind the slow-moving contents, and the abdomen begins to feel tight and swollen. None of this happens in a single dramatic moment. It builds gradually, and because it builds gradually, many people do not connect it with the medicine at first.
There is another route by which codeine reaches the stomach, and that is through the brain itself. Codeine acts on the area of the brain that controls nausea and vomiting, and it can trigger that area directly. This is why some people feel sick within an hour of taking codeine, even before any slowing of the gut has had time to matter. The nausea may pass after a single dose, or it may return with every dose, and it tends to be worse when a person moves around, eats a large meal, or takes codeine on an empty stomach. The combination of a slowed gut and a directly triggered nausea centre means the stomach is being hit from two directions at once.
It is also worth knowing that codeine is changed by the liver into morphine, and that change happens at different speeds in different people. Some people convert codeine quickly and feel stronger effects, including stronger gut effects. Others convert it slowly. This variation is one reason why the same amount of codeine can leave one person with only mild discomfort and another with severe constipation and vomiting. It is not a matter of toughness or willpower. It is a matter of how the body handles the drug, and that handling cannot be predicted from the outside.
Why Constipation Is So Common
Constipation is the most common stomach effect of codeine, and it is also the one that people are least likely to get used to. Many side effects of opioids fade as the body adjusts, but constipation often does not. It can persist for as long as codeine is used, and it can get worse the longer use continues. The reason is simple: as long as codeine is acting on the gut, the muscles that move waste forward stay sluggish, and the bowel keeps absorbing more water from the waste than it should. The longer the waste sits there, the harder and drier it becomes, and the harder it is to pass.
For many people this starts as a small change. Instead of a bowel movement every day, it comes every second or third day. Then the gap grows. A person may go four or five days without one, and when it finally comes it is painful, incomplete, and followed by a feeling that the bowel has not really emptied. Straining becomes part of the routine, and straining can bring its own problems: small tears around the anus, piles, and soreness that makes the next attempt even more dreaded. Some people begin to avoid eating much, because eating triggers the urge to go, and going has become painful. That avoidance makes the problem worse, because a gut with little food in it moves even more slowly.
Constipation is not just uncomfortable. When it is severe and prolonged, it can lead to a blockage in the bowel, where hard waste builds up and nothing can pass at all. The abdomen becomes distended and tender, vomiting may start, and the person may be unable to pass gas. This is a medical emergency, and it needs urgent care. It is uncommon, but it is a real risk with regular opioid use, and it is one of the reasons doctors take opioid constipation seriously rather than treating it as a minor nuisance. Even without a full blockage, long-standing constipation can cause ongoing pain, loss of appetite, nausea, and a general feeling of being unwell that colours every part of the day.
Drinking water and eating fibre help the bowel in general, and they are sensible habits for anyone, but it is important to be honest about their limits here. When codeine is actively slowing the gut, water and fibre alone often cannot overcome the effect. The medicine is still there, doing its work on the gut wall, and no amount of bran will switch that off. That is why health guidance usually says that constipation from opioids needs proper medical attention, not just home remedies, and why stopping the drug, under medical guidance, is often the only thing that fully restores normal bowel movement.
Nausea and Vomiting Explained
Nausea is the sick, unsettled feeling in the stomach that comes before vomiting, and it is one of the earliest effects many people notice with codeine. It can start within an hour of a dose and last for several hours. Some people feel it as a vague queasiness that makes food unappealing. Others feel it as a strong wave that comes with sweating, paleness and a desperate wish to lie still. Vomiting may follow, or the nausea may sit there without ever turning into vomiting, which in some ways is worse, because there is no release from it.
There are several reasons codeine causes nausea. One is the direct effect on the vomiting centre in the brain, which codeine can stimulate. Another is the slowing of the stomach itself. When the stomach empties slowly, food and acid sit there longer, and the stomach feels full and unsettled. A third reason is the effect on the inner ear and on movement: codeine can make a person more sensitive to motion, so standing up quickly, walking, or travelling in a vehicle can bring on nausea that would not have happened otherwise. Together these effects mean that nausea from codeine can be triggered by the drug, by food, by movement, or by all three at once.
Vomiting, when it happens repeatedly, brings its own dangers. It empties the stomach of food and fluid, and over time it can lead to dehydration, loss of salts the body needs, and damage to the teeth and the lining of the throat from repeated contact with stomach acid. A person who vomits often may start to eat less to avoid vomiting, and that leads to weight loss and weakness. There is also a particular danger if a person vomits while drowsy or unconscious, because the vomit can be breathed into the lungs. Codeine can cause drowsiness, especially when combined with alcohol or other sedating drugs, and that combination makes vomiting far more dangerous than it would be on its own.
It is worth noting that nausea and vomiting do not always mean the dose is too high, and they do not always fade with time. Some people find the nausea eases after the first few days as the body adjusts, but others find it returns with every dose for as long as they use codeine. If nausea or vomiting is frequent, persistent, or preventing a person from eating and drinking normally, that is a sign to seek medical advice promptly, not to wait and hope it will pass.
Pain, Cramps and Bloating
Stomach pain from codeine is often described as a dull ache, a cramping pain, or a feeling of pressure that comes and goes. It may sit in the upper abdomen, just below the ribs, or lower down, where the bowel is. It may be worse after eating, when the gut tries to move food that is already moving too slowly, or it may be worse when the bowel is full and straining to empty. Some people feel it as a constant background ache that never quite goes away. Others feel it in waves, with sharp cramps that arrive suddenly and then fade, leaving the abdomen tender.
Cramps happen because the gut muscles are not working in their normal coordinated way. Instead of smooth waves, there are irregular squeezes that push against contents that are not moving. The gut is trying to do its job, but the medicine is holding it back, and the struggle shows up as pain. Bloating happens for a related reason. When food and waste move slowly, bacteria in the gut have more time to ferment them, and fermentation produces gas. That gas has nowhere to go quickly, so the abdomen swells, clothes feel tight, and the person feels full even when they have eaten very little. Burping and passing wind may bring brief relief, but the bloating tends to return as long as the gut stays slow.
There is another, less well known cause of stomach pain with codeine, and it involves the gallbladder and the pancreas. Codeine can cause spasm in a small muscle called the sphincter of Oddi, which controls the flow of bile and pancreatic juices into the intestine. When that muscle tightens, pressure builds up, and the result can be sharp pain in the upper abdomen that spreads to the back. This is uncommon, but it is a recognised effect of opioids, and it is one of the reasons sudden severe upper abdominal pain in someone using codeine should be taken seriously and checked promptly rather than dismissed as ordinary stomach ache.
It is also important to distinguish ordinary codeine stomach pain from pain that signals something more serious. Pain that is sudden and severe, pain with a rigid or very tender abdomen, pain with fever, pain with vomiting that will not stop, or pain with blood in the vomit or stool are all warning signs. They may point to a blockage, inflammation, or another complication that needs urgent care. The gut is not a place to take chances with, and when pain changes in character or intensity, getting checked is the safer choice.
Appetite, Meals and Weight
One of the quietest effects of codeine on the stomach is the way it changes appetite. Food stops being appealing. The smell of cooking that used to make a person hungry now makes them feel queasy. A plate that used to be finished easily is left half full. Meals are skipped, or eaten in small amounts, or eaten very slowly because the stomach feels full after a few mouthfuls. At first this may look like a small thing, even a welcome one to someone who wanted to eat less. Over weeks, it becomes a problem.
The loss of appetite has several causes working together. Nausea makes food unappealing. A slow stomach makes a person feel full quickly. Constipation makes the abdomen feel heavy and uncomfortable, which kills hunger. Codeine itself can also blunt the brain’s interest in food, because the reward system that makes eating pleasurable is dulled by the drug. The result is that a person eats less without really deciding to, and the body starts to run short of the energy and nutrients it needs. Weight falls, slowly at first and then more noticeably. Muscles weaken, energy drops, and the person becomes more vulnerable to infections and to slow healing.
Meals also become socially difficult. Eating is a shared activity in most families, and a person who cannot eat normally starts to avoid the table, or sits there pushing food around the plate while everyone else eats. That avoidance can look like rudeness or withdrawal, and family members may not understand what is happening. The person may feel embarrassed, or guilty, or simply too tired to explain. Over time the shared meal, which used to be a moment of connection, becomes a source of tension, and the person eats alone more often, which makes the poor appetite worse because food eaten alone, without company, is even less appealing.
Weight loss from codeine is not a healthy kind of weight loss. It is not the result of eating better or moving more. It is the result of a body that cannot digest and absorb food properly, and a person who cannot face eating. If weight is falling steadily, if clothes are hanging loose, or if a person feels weak and dizzy, those are signs that the body is not getting what it needs, and they deserve medical attention. Rebuilding appetite and weight takes time after codeine is stopped, and it usually needs proper support, not just a decision to eat more.
When Stomach Trouble Becomes Serious
Most stomach trouble from codeine is miserable but not immediately dangerous, and it improves when the drug is stopped. Some of it, though, crosses a line, and it is important to know where that line is. A bowel that has not moved for many days, with a swollen and tender abdomen and vomiting, may be blocked. Vomiting blood, or bringing up material that looks like coffee grounds, may mean bleeding in the stomach. Black, tarry stools can also mean bleeding higher up in the gut. Severe pain that does not ease, pain with fever, or pain with a rigid abdomen all need urgent care. So does vomiting that prevents any fluid from staying down, because dehydration can develop quickly.
There are also longer-term risks that build quietly. Repeated vomiting damages the teeth and the lining of the food pipe. Chronic constipation can lead to piles, tears, and in some cases a stretched bowel that never quite works normally again. Poor nutrition weakens the immune system and slows healing, so a person becomes more likely to pick up infections and slower to recover from them. The gut also has a strong link with mood: a person whose stomach is constantly uncomfortable often feels low, anxious and irritable, and that low mood makes it harder to eat well, sleep well, or seek help. The stomach and the mind are not separate, and when one suffers for months, the other suffers too.
Another serious issue is that stomach trouble can mask other problems. A person who expects to feel unwell because of codeine may dismiss a new pain, a new change in bowel habit, or blood in the stool as just another side effect, when in fact it is something else that needs treatment. Codeine does not protect against stomach ulcers, gallbladder disease, or bowel problems, and it can hide their symptoms by dulling pain. That is one more reason why new or changing stomach symptoms in someone using codeine should be checked, rather than assumed to be the drug.
If codeine is being used without a prescription, or in larger amounts than prescribed, the risks are greater, because there is no medical supervision to catch these problems early. The same applies if codeine is mixed with alcohol or with other medicines that slow the gut or cause drowsiness. The stomach effects add up, and the danger of vomiting while drowsy, or of a blocked bowel going unnoticed, grows. None of this is a reason for shame. It is a reason to get help, and help exists, including confidential support services for people who use drugs and want to stop.
What Happens When Use Continues
When codeine use continues over months, the stomach does not simply stay the same. The pattern tends to deepen. Constipation becomes the normal state rather than an occasional problem. Meals become smaller and less frequent. Nausea becomes a regular part of the day. The person learns to live around the symptoms: eating at certain times, avoiding certain foods, planning the day around when the bowel might move, keeping remedies close at hand. Life narrows, not all at once, but gradually, as the gut takes up more and more attention.
The body also develops tolerance to some effects of codeine, but tolerance to constipation is weak. That means a person may need more codeine to get the same pain relief or the same feeling, while the constipation stays just as bad, or gets worse. Higher amounts bring stronger gut effects, and the cycle tightens. Dependence can develop too, and then the stomach trouble is joined by another problem: the fear of stopping, because stopping brings withdrawal, and withdrawal itself affects the gut, with cramps, diarrhoea and nausea. The person can feel trapped between a gut that suffers while using and a gut that suffers while stopping, and that feeling of being trapped is one of the hardest parts of opioid dependence.
The good news is that the gut can recover. When codeine is stopped, with proper support, the bowel usually begins to move more normally within days to weeks, appetite returns, and food starts to taste good again. The recovery is not always smooth, and it can take time, especially after long use, but the gut is a resilient organ, and it does improve once the drug that was slowing it is gone. The key is to stop safely, with medical guidance, because stopping opioids suddenly after regular use can cause withdrawal that is very unpleasant and, in some situations, needs medical supervision. A doctor, a pharmacist, or a local drug support service can help plan a safe way to stop, and can also help with the stomach symptoms during the process.
If you take one thing from this article, let it be this: stomach trouble from codeine is not a small side effect to be endured in silence. It is a real and common harm, it affects eating, energy, mood and daily life, and it can become serious. It deserves to be taken seriously, and the person experiencing it deserves support, not judgement. Talking to a health professional, honestly and early, is the best step, and it is a step that many people wish they had taken sooner.
My Take:
I will be honest with you about what I think of codeine and the stomach, because I think this is one of the most underestimated harms of the drug. When people talk about opioids, they talk about overdose, and they talk about addiction, and both of those things matter enormously. But they rarely talk about the gut, and the gut is where codeine does its daily damage. It does not kill in a single dramatic moment. It wears a person down, meal by meal, day by day, until eating is a chore, the bowels barely work, and the body is running on too little food. That slow wearing down is easy to miss from the outside, and it is easy for the person living through it to accept as normal, because it arrives so gradually. I think that is what makes it dangerous. A harm that arrives slowly is a harm that people learn to live with, and learning to live with it is not the same as it being harmless.
What strikes me most is the constipation, because it is so stubborn and so little talked about. Most side effects fade as the body gets used to a drug, and people are often told to wait it out. With opioid constipation, waiting it out does not work. The gut stays slow for as long as the drug is there, and the person is left managing a problem that never really goes away. I have read account after account of people who planned their lives around their bowels, who dreaded eating because eating meant pain, and who felt embarrassed to talk about it, even to a doctor. That embarrassment matters. Constipation is not a glamorous topic, and people do not want to discuss it, so they suffer in silence, and the silence lets the problem grow. I would rather be blunt: if a medicine leaves you unable to pass a stool for days at a time, that is not a minor inconvenience. It is a sign that the medicine is harming a basic bodily function, and it deserves proper attention.
The appetite problem worries me just as much, because it is so quiet. Nobody notices at first when a person eats a little less. A plate left half full looks like a small thing. A skipped breakfast looks like a busy morning. But over weeks, those small things add up to real weight loss, real weakness, and a body that is not getting the fuel it needs. Food is not just fuel, either. It is pleasure, it is comfort, and it is one of the main ways families come together. When codeine takes away the pleasure of eating, it takes away more than calories. It takes away a daily joy, and it takes away a shared moment. I think about that a lot, because it shows how a drug can damage a life without ever causing a crisis. There is no emergency, no hospital visit, just a slow shrinking of the day, and that shrinking is a real loss.
I also think the nausea deserves more respect than it gets. People who have never lived with constant nausea do not understand how exhausting it is. It is not just feeling sick. It is a feeling that sits in the background of everything, making it hard to work, hard to concentrate, hard to enjoy anything. A person who feels nauseous all day cannot think clearly, cannot sleep well, and cannot eat properly, and the tiredness that follows makes everything else harder. When nausea is caused by a drug that a person is taking every day, it becomes part of the furniture of life, and that is a terrible thing to accept. I do not think anyone should accept feeling sick every day as the price of pain relief or of a habit, when there are other options and other kinds of help available.
The part I find hardest to accept is how often stomach trouble is dismissed, by the person themselves and sometimes by the people around them. A stomach ache is so ordinary that it is easy to say it will pass, or that it is just something they ate, or that they need more fibre and water. Those things can help a healthy gut, but they do not fix a gut that is being slowed by an opioid every day. I think we need to be clearer about that. Telling someone with opioid constipation to eat more fibre is like telling someone with a broken leg to walk more. It misses the cause, and it puts the blame on the person for not trying hard enough, when the real problem is the drug. If the stomach trouble started when codeine started, and it persists while codeine continues, the connection is worth taking seriously, and a health professional should hear about it.
I want to say something about shame, because I think shame keeps a lot of people from getting help. Stomach problems are embarrassing to talk about. Drug use is embarrassing to talk about. Put the two together, and many people will say nothing at all, to their doctor, to their family, to anyone. They will manage alone, with remedies bought quietly, and they will hope the problem goes away on its own. It usually does not. I would say this plainly: there is no shame in a medicine harming your gut, and there is no shame in asking for help to stop a drug that is harming you. Doctors have heard this before, many times, and they are there to help, not to judge. The sooner a person speaks up, the sooner the gut can start to recover, and the sooner eating can become a pleasure again rather than a problem.
If someone I cared about was using codeine and struggling with their stomach, the first thing I would want them to know is that they are not imagining it, and they are not weak for finding it hard. The gut effects of codeine are real, they are common, and they are a legitimate reason to seek help, even if nothing else seems wrong. I would want them to talk to a doctor or a pharmacist, honestly, about how much they use, how long they have used it, and what their stomach is doing. That conversation is the starting point for a plan, whether that plan is to stop the drug safely, to change to a different approach for pain, or to get support for dependence. There is no single plan that fits everyone, and that is why a professional who knows the full picture is so important.
I also think families need to know what to look for, because the person using codeine may not tell them. If someone in your family is eating much less, losing weight, complaining of stomach pain, spending a long time in the bathroom, or avoiding meals, those are signs worth noticing, and worth asking about gently, without accusation. A question asked with care, at a calm moment, is far more likely to help than a confrontation. The person may be embarrassed, or frightened, or simply unsure how to explain what is happening. Patience matters. The goal is not to catch them out. The goal is to let them know that help exists and that they do not have to manage this alone.
Stopping codeine is not easy, and I do not want to pretend otherwise. The gut may take time to recover, and withdrawal can bring its own stomach upset, with cramps and loose bowels that feel like the opposite problem. That is normal, and it does pass, but it is unpleasant, and it is one reason why stopping with medical support is better than stopping alone. A doctor can help plan the timing, can advise on how to manage the symptoms, and can make sure the person is safe through the process. I think anyone who decides to stop deserves that support, and I think asking for it is a sign of strength, not weakness. It takes courage to admit that a drug is harming you, and it takes more courage to do something about it.
What I would really like people to take from this is a simple idea: a medicine that stops your gut working properly is harming you, even if it is also helping with pain. Pain relief matters, and I am not saying that no one should ever use codeine. There are situations where a doctor prescribes it for a short time, for a clear reason, and that is a different matter from using it regularly, for months, without supervision. The difference is the supervision, the time limit, and the willingness to stop when the harm outweighs the benefit. If codeine is being used without a prescription, or for longer than a doctor advised, or in larger amounts than prescribed, the balance has shifted, and the stomach is often the first place where that shift shows.
I think about the future too, because the gut does recover, and that is a hopeful thing. The bowel can start moving normally again. Appetite can return. Food can taste good again. Meals can become enjoyable rather than dreaded. That recovery takes time, and it takes support, but it happens, and it is worth working towards. I have seen how much difference it makes when a person can eat normally again, sleep without stomach pain, and go through a day without planning around their bowels. It sounds like a small thing, but it is not small. It is the difference between a life narrowed by a drug and a life that is opening up again, and that is a difference worth fighting for.
Finally, I would say this to anyone who is reading this because they recognise their own stomach in these words: you deserve help, and help exists. You do not have to wait until the problem becomes an emergency. You do not have to be sure it is codeine before you ask. You can talk to a doctor, a pharmacist, or a confidential support service, and you can describe what is happening in plain words, just as it is. You will not be the first person to have this conversation, and you will not be judged for it. The stomach trouble you are living with is real, it has a cause, and it can improve. The first step is the hardest, and it is also the most important: saying, honestly, that something is wrong, and asking for support to put it right.
There is one more thing I want to be clear about, and that is the difference between short-term prescribed use and long-term unsupervised use. A doctor may prescribe codeine for a few days after an injury or an operation, with a clear stopping point, and in that situation the stomach effects, while unpleasant, are usually brief and monitored. That is very different from taking codeine for weeks or months without medical guidance, or taking more than was prescribed, or taking it to feel calmer or to sleep. In the second situation there is no one checking whether the harm is outweighing the benefit, no one to notice the weight falling, and no plan for stopping. I think that difference matters, and I think it is worth saying out loud, because many people slide from the first situation into the second without noticing. A short course that was meant to end becomes a habit that continues, and the stomach is usually the first part of the body to show that the line has been crossed.
I also want to say something about the people who care for someone using codeine, because they often feel helpless. You can see the person eating less, you can see them in pain, and you do not know what to say. My view is that the most helpful thing is not a lecture, and not an ultimatum, but a steady, honest conversation. Tell them what you have noticed, in plain words, without blame. Tell them you are worried about their stomach, their weight, and their health. Offer to go with them to the doctor, or to help them find a support service. And be patient if they are not ready straight away. Change rarely happens in a single conversation. It happens when a person feels safe enough to admit there is a problem, and that safety often comes from knowing that the people around them will stand by them rather than judge them. If you are that person, your patience matters more than you think, and it may be the thing that finally makes help feel possible.
Frequently Asked Questions
How soon can trouble digesting normal meals appear after using Codeine?
Trouble digesting normal meals can appear within days of regular codeine use, because codeine slows the muscles of the stomach and gut quite quickly. Some people notice a heavy, full feeling after small meals in the first week, while others notice it more gradually over a few weeks. The timing varies, but early stomach upset is common and should not be dismissed as just getting used to the medicine.
Is vomiting after heavy use from Codeine dangerous?
Yes, repeated vomiting from codeine can be dangerous. It can lead to dehydration, loss of important salts, damage to the teeth and throat from stomach acid, and weight loss from being unable to keep food down. There is also a serious risk if a person vomits while drowsy, because vomit can be breathed into the lungs. Frequent or persistent vomiting should be checked by a health professional promptly.
Does lost appetite from Codeine go away after stopping?
In most cases appetite does improve after stopping codeine, but it usually takes time rather than returning overnight. The gut needs days to weeks to start moving normally again, and the brain’s interest in food returns gradually. Eating small, regular meals and getting proper support can help, and if appetite stays very poor for weeks after stopping, a health professional should be asked for advice.
What should I do if Codeine is causing trouble digesting normal meals?
The safest step is to speak to a doctor or pharmacist honestly about the codeine use and the stomach symptoms, rather than trying to manage it alone. They can advise on safe ways to stop, on support for dependence if needed, and on how to ease the stomach symptoms. If there is severe pain, vomiting that will not stop, blood in vomit or stool, or no bowel movement for many days with a swollen abdomen, seek urgent medical care.
Who is most at risk of lost appetite from Codeine?
People who use codeine regularly or in larger amounts are most at risk, and the risk is higher for older people, people with existing stomach or bowel problems, and people who use codeine together with alcohol or other medicines that slow the gut. Anyone who is eating much less, losing weight steadily, or feeling weak should speak to a qualified health professional promptly.
Can Codeine really cause constipation that lingers?
Yes. Constipation is one of the most common and most persistent effects of codeine. Unlike some other side effects, it often does not fade with time, because codeine keeps acting on the gut for as long as it is used. It can last for weeks or months, and it can become severe. If constipation is persistent, painful, or accompanied by a swollen abdomen or vomiting, medical advice should be sought promptly.
Sources
- National Institute on Drug Abuse — https://nida.nih.gov/research-topics/opioids
- U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration — https://www.dea.gov/drug-information
- Mayo Clinic, Drug addiction — https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/drug-addiction/symptoms-causes/syc-20365112
- World Health Organization, Substance abuse — https://www.who.int/health-topics/substance-abuse
- NHS, Drug addiction: getting help — https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/addiction-support/drug-addiction-getting-help/
This article is general information only. It is not medical advice. If you are worried about your health or about someone else, speak to a qualified health professional.
