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Hydromorphone
Pronounced hy-dro-MOR-fone
Brand names: Dilaudid, Exalgo
Type: Opioid pain reliever · All Pain Relief & Fever Medicines
What Hydromorphone is used for
- Moderate to severe pain, including in hospital
- Severe pain in patients who cannot take morphine
◆ Kidney note
Builds up in kidney failure — doses are lowered and it is used cautiously in advanced kidney disease and dialysis.
Common side effects
- Constipation
- Nausea
- Drowsiness
- Dizziness
- Headache
Important cautions
- Far more potent than morphine — dosing errors with it have caused fatal overdoses, so it is handled very carefully
- Can cause dangerous slowed breathing with alcohol or sedating medicines, and can be habit-forming
How it comes
Tablets, extended-release tablets, liquid, injection (hospital). This guide lists forms only — it never lists strengths or doses.
Related medicines — Pain Relief & Fever Medicines
Please note: This page is a patient-education summary, not medical advice, and it deliberately contains no doses. Medicines affect everyone differently — always follow your own prescription and talk to your doctor or pharmacist before starting, stopping or changing any medicine.