What Is The Potency Of Vicodin HP?

Posted on Fri, 2 May 2014

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Fri, 2 May 2014 Answered on

Thu, 22 May 2014 Last reviewed on

Question : What is the potency of vicodin HP? A friend of mine took a 1/4 of a vicodin today at noon and is concerned when it will be cleared from his body. Thank you

Answered by Dr. Dr. Michelle Gibson (2 hours later)

Brief Answer:
likely 3 to 4 hours

Detailed Answer:
HI, thanks for using healthcare magic

Vicodin HP contains hydrocodone bitrate 10mg and acetaminophen 660mg.

Hydrocodone has a half life of 3.8 hours and acetaminophen has a half life of 1.25 to 3 hours.
The half life of a drugs is the time it takes for the amount of drug to decrease by half in the system. It takes 3 to 4 half lives for a drug to be completely eliminated.

This means that it would take approximately 16 hours to eliminate hydrocodone and approximately up to 12 hours to eliminate acetaminophen.

Since your friend only took a 1/4 tablet, it should be eliminated in a 1/4 of the time-3 to 4 hours in most persons.

I hope this helps, feel free to ask any other questions

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar