Author: James Anderson

When good TV goes bad: why House’s self-medication got the better of him House

house drug addiction

House goes on a full on Vicodin binge, ending in an episode where he jumps off a balcony into a hotel pool as a crowd of onlookers including Wilson look on. In order to try to get Tritter off his back, House heads to rehab. Tritter is unimpressed and the court case continues, despite House’s angry reaction. However, the case comes to an end when Cuddy perjured herself to say that House got a placebo.

house drug addiction

Hydrocodone is abused for Hydrocodone diversion and abuse has escalated in recent years. About 1.3% of 8th graders and 3.8% of 12th graders had used it for a non-medicinal purpose in a 2012 survey. The characters were very complex and the dynamic between them led to an intriguing hour of television. I have yet found a tv show with a character as complex as Dr. Gregory House. Inpatient rehab may be a short-term solution, while counseling and health coaching can be long-term options. During recovery, help and accountability from friends and loved ones may also be needed.

House takes Vicodin to prepare himself for his self-surgery in After Hours. He takes more while he’s waiting for a real surgeon to repair the damage. In Lockdown, Foreman and Taub experiment with Vicodin when they get locked in the hospital’s record storage room.

Tips for living with a loved one who has an addiction

When faced with a malingering hypochondriac clinic patient, House writes a prescription for Vicodin for the man, but fills the bottle with mints from a candy machine nearby, pocketing the real drug himself. This is despite the fact we are already aware he has a “free floating” prescription for the drug. Like most other narcotics, Vicodin is abused for its ability create a sense of euphoria. However, the body builds tolerance to its effects, which results in the abuser having to consistently increase the dose to get the same effect.

house drug addiction

Almost all abuse is fed through diversion of legitimately manufactured pills. Because it does not face the restrictions of stronger more habit forming opiate based products, Vicodin is often a target for addicts who use such methods as fake and altered prescriptions, theft and illicit internet purchases. Addicts often combine it with alcohol as the risk of medicine interaction is lower with Vicodin than with other narcotics. One of House’s favorite people to antagonize was Dr. Lisa Cuddy, the Dean of Medicine at the hospital, and his boss. Anytime House could frustrate her, he welcomed the opportunity. Cuddy would often work to manipulate House and was one of the only people who could see right through his schemes.

Tips for living with a person in recovery from addiction

After Wilson finds out about the assault, he turns to Tritter to cooperate. House takes a Vicodin in full view of a difficult clinic patient in Fools for Love, then sticks a thermometer up the man’s rectum. However, the man turns out to be a police officer, Michael Tritter. He follows House on his motorcycle and during a traffic stop, searches for and finds House’s Vicodin. Wilson goes to visit House’s team to let them know about the bet and keep an eye on House to make sure he’s all right.

  1. House finally turns to Cuddy, who realizes that if she cuts House off, Tritter will only be more suspicious and she agrees to provide him a prescription.
  2. In order to try to get Tritter off his back, House heads to rehab.
  3. Wilson and Watson work to pick up the pieces that the genius detectives leave behind.
  4. In people with addiction, dopamine receptors activate and tell the brain that drugs are rewards.
  5. All these non-questions and more are explored in exhaustive detail.

Nearly slaughtering a dinner party because of a broken heart fits nowhere into what we had thought we knew about the ultra-logical misog. In Bombshells, House is unable to cope with Cuddy’s medical scare and takes Vicodin so he has enough nerve to be at her side. When Cuddy realizes he’s using again, she breaks up with him and House returns to his use of the drug.

Gregory House

House first insists he’s not feeling any of the effects of withdrawal. He even arranges for House to get a massage from a beautiful woman to help with his pain. Other brands and generics for oral use the same hydrocodone doses, but typically use 325 mg of acetaminophen instead. Zohydro and Hysingla ER (Hydrocodone Extended Release) are the only form of Hydrocodone without a combination currently on US market. Medicine interaction is not common, but physicians should be wary when prescribing Vicodin to patients who already take antidepressants, antihistamines, antipsychotics, MAOIs, and sedatives.

Although extremely intelligent, Dr. House was barely able to cope with chronic leg pain without his bottle of vicodin. The man popped pills like they were candy, much to the chagrin of his co-workers. His team only took on interesting cases that other doctors were unable to solve. House loved puzzles and he saw strange illnesses as the most fascinating types of puzzles. Although he is intrigued by people, House has serious problems connecting with them.

How to Cope When Someone in Your Household Lives with Addiction

Wilson and Foreman jump to the conclusion that House is on heroin, but it turns out he’s on methadone. When Cuddy tells him he has to stop, House quits, but she agrees to take him back when she has a change of heart. However, House starts to feel the methadone is clouding his judgment, and he turns back to Vicodin. Unlike many other abused drugs, there is very little illicit Vicodin production.

Some less common side effects are allergic reaction, blood disorders, changes in mood, mental fogginess, anxiety, lethargy, difficulty urinating, spasm of the ureter, irregular or depressed respiration, and rashes. Vicodin can be prescribed to anyone age 6 and up, but children under the age of 12 should not be prescribed a time released formulation. When Wilson is suffering terrible pain from his extreme chemotherapy session in The C Word, House shares his Vicodin with him after the morphine runs out, even though House is short himself. In Blowing the Whistle, House fakes one of the major side effects of Vicodin, hepatic encephalopathy, in order to test the loyalty of his team. In Runaways, House uses his Vicodin to tempt the patient’s mother, a former addict.