Buprenorphine and Oxycodone Interaction
Drug interaction information between Buprenorphine and Oxycodone.
Buprenorphine and Oxycodone have a documented moderate interaction in FDA labeling.
FDA drug labeling documents a moderate-severity interaction between Buprenorphine and Oxycodone. Major interactions are generally avoided, moderate ones may need monitoring or a dose adjustment, and minor ones are usually low-risk. This page shows the documented mechanism and guidance. Label-documented interactions are not a complete safety review, so always confirm your own medications with a pharmacist or doctor. Educational information, not medical advice.
How They Interact
Oxycodone can make the muscle-weakening effects of other drugs stronger and can cause your breathing to slow down significantly. This combination can be very dangerous for your lungs and muscles.
What To Do
You should avoid using these two medications together to prevent serious breathing or muscle problems.
FDA Label Information
Intervention: Avoid concomitant use Examples: Butorphanol, nalbuphine, pentazocine, buprenorphine Muscle Relaxants Clinical Impact: Oxycodone may enhance the neuromuscular blocking action of skeletal muscle relaxants and produce an increased degree of respiratory depression.
Buprenorphine Also Interacts With
- Trazodone minor
- Cyclobenzaprine minor
- Mirtazapine minor
- Ketoconazole minor
- Carbamazepine minor
Oxycodone Also Interacts With
- Carbamazepine moderate
- Rifampin moderate
- Butorphanol moderate
- Nalbuphine moderate
- Phenytoin moderate
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I take Buprenorphine and Oxycodone together?
This is a moderate interaction. You should avoid using these two medications together to prevent serious breathing or muscle problems.
How serious is the interaction between Buprenorphine and Oxycodone?
This interaction is classified as "moderate" severity by the FDA. Moderate interactions may worsen your condition or change how your medications work.
Why do Buprenorphine and Oxycodone interact?
Oxycodone can make the muscle-weakening effects of other drugs stronger and can cause your breathing to slow down significantly. This combination can be very dangerous for your lungs and muscles.
Understanding the Buprenorphine and Oxycodone Interaction
FDA-approved prescribing information for these two drugs flags their combination as a moderate-severity interaction. Buprenorphine belongs to the Partial Opioid Agonist class and Oxycodone belongs to the Opioid Analgesic class - two categories that can collide when co-prescribed. The mechanism described in FDA labeling is: Oxycodone can make the muscle-weakening effects of other drugs stronger and can cause your breathing to slow down significantly. Severity tiers matter: major flags generally advise avoidance, moderate flags often require monitoring or dose adjustment, and minor flags may only call for awareness.
Context around a specific patient determines real-world impact. Buprenorphine has 29 total documented interactions on file in this dataset, and Oxycodone has 28. Each additional medication compounds the interaction surface, which is why pharmacists run full-profile checks rather than evaluating one pair at a time. FDA-derived guidance for this pair is: You should avoid using these two medications together to prevent serious breathing or muscle problems. Timing of doses, renal and hepatic function, age, and other concurrent prescriptions all shape whether a labeled interaction matters clinically.
An interaction flag is not a verdict. A large share of labeled interactions are managed routinely in clinical practice, the fix may be as simple as spacing doses or adding a monitoring test. Others require the prescriber to choose a different medication entirely. This page surfaces FDA-sourced labeling and openFDA data for educational purposes only; it is not medical advice and cannot account for your full clinical picture. Never start, stop, or adjust either Buprenorphine or Oxycodone based on a web page, speak with your prescriber or pharmacist before making any change.
Sources: FDA Drug Labels (SPL) via openFDA (2026). This is for informational purposes only and is not medical advice. Always consult your healthcare provider about drug interactions.
Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.