currently i take oxycontin for pain & it hasnt beenworking,a smaller dose of Vicodin worksmore. Is this normal considering its a smallerdose?

Dosage is not simply what is written on the pill bottle. The medications form also must be taken into consideration. For example, Oxycontin is a brand name that is short for "Oxycodone Continous Release". An Oxycontin pill takes a long time to be completely absorbed, and that is on purpose. That is the time-release. So if you take, for example, a 40mg Oxycontin pill, it should last roughly 12 hours. That is an average of about 3.33 mg per hour, although that will of course vary over that period of time, ranging from probably 6mg/hour earlier on and down to 1mg/hour as the pill shrinks and is nearly absorbed.

The reason the Vicodin (hydrocodone) seems to work more is because it is not time released. It is designed to dissolve almost immediately, so peak effects occur within 45 minutes of taking the pill. If you take a 10mg Vicodin, even though it is only 1/4 the total dose of the Oxycodone, for a short period of time you may feel more effects and your pain may be relieved better. However, it will have a much shorter period of effect and would require more frequent dosing to cover the length of time that an Oxycontin will provide relief. You would have more "ups and downs" in your pain relief as you take pills, they ware off, and you take another.

However, you could talk to your doctor about changing if you think it will better serve you. Oxycontin is a very tightly regulated drug, and your doctor would probably gladly put you on the less-regulated hydrocodone. But if they try to change you to Zohydro, a newer form of hydrocodone that is time-released like Oxycontin, know that you will likely have a similar experience to Oxycontin, except with less pain relief since hydrocodone is technically weaker than oxycodone. It is also new, and thus would be quite expensive.