Chances are that about half of you who have prescriptions for Vicodin or Lorcet or Norco don’t receive a little bottle from the pharmacy with the brand name on it. Most likely it will use the generic name: Hydrocodone and Acetaminophen. Is there any difference between brand name and generic prescription painkillers? And more importantly, is either more or less addictive than the other?

In a word, no, on both counts. Generic versions of brand name prescription drugs are the exact same thing and of the same quality and therefore just as addictive. Their strength is the same as are their side effects and intended usage and administration. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) makes sure of that with stringent requirements for the companies who make the generic version of your medication. In fact, the FDA estimates that about half of all generic drugs are made by brand name companies in the same facilities in which they make their brand name drugs.

So if you’ve heard rumors that the generic drugs are less potent than the brand name ones and therefore less addictive, you’ve heard wrong.

There are differences, however. Trademark laws require generic versions of the drug to look different than their brand name counterparts. They may be a different shape, color or, if liquid, a different flavor. They may even have different inactive ingredients. Again, inactive ingredients, so the efficacy of the drug is not affected. Oh, and brand name drugs are capitalized when their generic versions usually are not. But the active ingredients and their amounts must be the same in both versions of the drug, which means that they are equally addictive.

So what is the purpose of this and how does it happen? For one thing, generic forms are not available for all drugs; only after the patent is up can it be made generically. And the reason why the generic form is cheaper has nothing to do with the manufacturing but with the fact that the company did not have to invest in the original research, development and marketing. The price gets even cheaper when more than one company is approved by the FDA to produce a drug generically. 

So if your insurance company has anything to say about it, you’ll most likely be receiving the generic version for the duration, but don’t think for a second that they’re any less addictive. Opiates in any form are dangerous.

If you’d like to know more about Suboxone detox to break your addiction to opiates, check out the cache of articles at Meditox.