Opioid Use Disorder · Updated October 2026

Hydrocodone Addiction Treatment in Tennessee

Outpatient medication-assisted treatment for hydrocodone, Vicodin, Norco, and Lortab dependence — for patients who started with a prescription and never expected to end up here. Four clinics across Southeast Tennessee and North Georgia, same-day appointments available.

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Same-day appointments available · TennCare, BlueCare, BCBS, UHC, and most commercial insurance accepted.

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You don’t have to be in withdrawal to call Confidential from your first call

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CARF AccreditedServing Chattanooga since 2017

CARF Accredited Licensed in Tennessee & Georgia Same-day appointments available Confidential from your first call

Get started today

From your first call to your first dose

Outpatient medication-assisted treatment: a same-day Suboxone prescription, counseling, and extended-release Sublocade or Brixadi if you prefer.

The call

Call 423-498-2000

Phones are answered Mon–Fri, 9am–4:30pm Eastern. Same-day appointments are available.

You don’t have to be in withdrawal, or to have stopped, to call.

Clinic hours
Coverage

Your benefits, checked first

We verify your benefits before your first visit. TennCare, BlueCare, BCBS, UHC, Medicare and most commercial insurance are accepted.

No insurance? We can check whether you may qualify for TennCare, and self-pay for medication-assisted treatment (MAT) is a flat $250 a month, with medication billed separately.

Verify Insurance Insurance details
3
First visit

About 2–3 hours, four steps
1. Intake: DSM-5 assessment and COWS score
2. Counseling
3. Doctor evaluation
4. Prescription
Bring a photo ID, your insurance card and a list of any medications.

All four steps
Your plan

A Suboxone prescription the same day

You take the first dose at home when your provider says.

Prefer extended-release? Your provider orders Sublocade (monthly) or Brixadi (weekly or monthly), and you bridge on Suboxone until the injection. Counseling is part of the plan, and you can add IOP if you need more structure.

How we treat it

4 clinics across Tennessee & North Georgia

Hours 9am–4:30pm ET

Chattanooga, TN Mon–Fri Full MAT + on-site IOP
Cleveland, TN Tue & Thu Full MAT, incl. injections
Soddy-Daisy, TN Mon & Wed Oral MAT, injections at Chattanooga (25 min south)
Ringgold, GA Fri Full MAT, GA’s only clinic

Find your nearest clinic

Talk to our team

Request a Callback Call 423-498-2000

What Is Hydrocodone?

Hydrocodone is a semi-synthetic opioid used to treat moderate-to-moderately-severe pain. Chemically, it sits between codeine and oxycodone in potency. For the better part of three decades it has been one of the most widely prescribed medications in the United States: the most prescribed opioid and, at its peak, one of the most prescribed medications of any kind. If you took a pain pill after dental work, a back injury, a C-section or a broken ankle, there is a very good chance it was hydrocodone.

What’s in the bottle

Hydrocodone is almost always sold in a combination formulation. Pure hydrocodone products exist but are uncommon.

Hydrocodone +

Acetaminophen

The active ingredient in Tylenol
- Vicodin
- Lortab
- Norco
- Lorcet
Hydrocodone +

Ibuprofen
- Vicoprofen
- Reprexain
Hydrocodone +

Homatropine

Used as a cough suppressant
- Hycodan
Hydrocodone alone

Pure hydrocodone

Uncommon
- Zohydro ER
- Hysingla ER

Taken at high doses for a long time, the acetaminophen or ibuprofen in these pills can become a second medical problem on top of the opioid dependence itself.

TN opioid prescribing, peak → decline

Opioid prescriptions per person, Tennessee

Tennessee
U.S. average

2012

Tennessee peaked at 1.4 opioid prescriptions per resident, the 2nd-highest rate in the U.S. That was one for every man, woman and child in the state, with 40% to spare.

Tennessee also passed the Prescription Safety Act of 2012. Starting April 1, 2013, prescribers had to check the state’s Controlled Substance Monitoring Database (CSMD) before starting a patient on opioids or benzodiazepines.

1.4 2012 peak
October 6, 2014

Schedule III to Schedule II

Responding to clear evidence of widespread abuse and dependence, the DEA moved hydrocodone combination products from Schedule III to Schedule II of the Controlled Substances Act.

Schedule III, until October 2014

Combination products could be refilled by phone, faxed or called in by a provider, and were generally treated as lower-risk than pure opioids like oxycodone or morphine.

Schedule II, from October 6, 2014

The same pills need a written or electronic prescription: no phone-in refills, a new prescription every fill and, in most states, tighter monitoring.

A 2019 study of 1,365 Texas physicians found 78.8% agreed the rescheduling had changed how they prescribed.
2017

0.95 2017
2019

Nationally: 46.8 prescriptions per 100 persons.
2024

Tennessee: 56.1 prescriptions per 100 persons, the 5th-highest rate among the states and D.C. Nationally: 35.4 prescriptions per 100 persons.

0.56 2024 (Tennessee)
Down 60% since 2012
0.35 2024 (U.S. avg)

Tennessee’s own prescription database shows the number of opioid prescriptions filled fell 20% between 2012 and 2017, from 8.5 million to 6.8 million. Total morphine milligram equivalents (MMEs), a measure of total opioid dose, fell 32%.

Together, the rescheduling and the CSMD check requirement cut hydrocodone prescribing sharply. For patients who had built physical dependence during the decade of liberal prescribing, that created a sudden access problem.

From the Prescription Pad to the Pill Bottle

Many people dependent on hydrocodone don’t fit the picture most of us have of “addiction.” They were prescribed Vicodin after surgery, given Lortab for back pain after an injury at work, or sent home with a bottle of Norco after a car accident, with instructions to take one every six hours as needed. For a while, the pills did exactly what they were supposed to do.

Ran out

The prescription ran out.
Not enough

The prescription didn’t run out, but the pain outran the dose, and two pills weren’t enough anymore.
Pain returned

The prescription ran out, and the pain came back.
The feeling

The prescription ran out and the pain was mostly gone, but the feeling of the pill (calm, slightly euphoric, a buffer between you and the day) was something worth keeping.

Any one of these four paths can lead to opioid dependence.

When prescribing fell, a generation of patients was left with physical dependence and no prescription, looking for another way to stop the withdrawal.

Counterfeit pills seized nationally

Fentanyl-laced fake M30 and combo pills

Starting around 2016, the U.S. illicit pill supply underwent a quiet replacement. The “oxycodone 30” (M30) tablets that used to circulate as diverted pharmaceuticals became counterfeit pressings made overseas. The pills look identical to the real thing. They contain no oxycodone and no hydrocodone. They contain fentanyl.

2 mg Lethal dose At least 2 milligrams of fentanyl is a potentially lethal dose.
6 in 10 Contain lethal dose In 2022, six in ten seized counterfeit pills held a potentially lethal dose.
115M Seized 2023, fentanyl-laced pills In 2023, U.S. law enforcement seized about 115 million counterfeit pills in High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas, roughly half of all fentanyl seizures nationally.

Counterfeit pills are pressed to look like legitimate hydrocodone, oxycodone, Xanax, or Adderall.

If you ran out of your prescription and bought pills that looked like hydrocodone, Percocet, or “30s” from anyone outside a pharmacy, you were almost certainly exposed to fentanyl.

The treatment is the same MAT, and it still works. Getting in sooner matters more, because your prescription pills held a known dose and a street pill can hold an unknown amount of fentanyl, often a potentially lethal dose. If you’ve taken street pills, your provider will explain when to take your first dose at home, since fentanyl can mean a longer wait.

Sources: Federal Register, Rescheduling of Hydrocodone Combination Products (DEA, August 2014); CDC, MMWR Vital Signs: Variation Among States in Prescribing of Opioid Pain Relievers and Benzodiazepines, 2012 (July 2014); Sycamore Institute, Tennessee Opioid Epidemic: 2018 Indicators (2012–2017 prescription and MME trends); Tennessee Department of Health, Controlled Substance Monitoring Database 2018 Report to the General Assembly; Tennessee Public Chapter 880 (Prescription Safety Act of 2012); CDC, Opioid Dispensing Rate Maps (2017 archive; 2019–2024 state and national rates); Fleming et al., Journal of Pain & Palliative Care Pharmacotherapy (2019); NIH press release, Over 115 million pills containing illicit fentanyl seized by law enforcement in 2023; CDC, Rx Awareness / Counterfeit Pills; JAMA Network Open, State-to-State Variation in Opioid Dispensing (2023).

Bought pills outside a pharmacy?

Same-day appointments are available at all four clinics, on the days each is open.

Request a Callback Call 423-498-2000

Treatment

How We Treat Hydrocodone Addiction

Every opioid patient is evaluated for medication-assisted treatment, because the evidence is overwhelming: a much lower risk of fatal overdose while patients remain on medication, longer retention in treatment, and lower rates of illicit opioid use. We pair MAT with psychosocial support and integrated care for co-occurring conditions.

First-line MAT

Suboxone (daily film or tablet)

Buprenorphine + naloxone taken sublingually as a dissolving film or tablet under the tongue. Buprenorphine is a partial opioid agonist: it stabilizes cravings and prevents withdrawal at the same receptors hydrocodone was acting on, but with a ceiling on euphoria and respiratory depression. For Rx-opioid-first patients, starting Suboxone at home on a same-day prescription is dramatically easier than a cold-turkey attempt. The naloxone component is inactive when the medication is taken correctly; it’s included to discourage misuse via injection.

Long-acting

Sublocade (monthly injection)

A long-acting extended-release form of buprenorphine administered once per month at our Chattanooga, Cleveland, and Ringgold clinics. Many patients who start on Suboxone transition to Sublocade because there’s no daily dose to take and blood levels stay steadier through the month. For patients whose dependence began with pill-taking, it also removes the pill ritual entirely. We have you take Suboxone for at least a week before the first injection, and it usually comes about a month after you start.

Brixadi (weekly or monthly)

Another extended-release buprenorphine injection with flexible dosing intervals, given at our Chattanooga, Cleveland, and Ringgold clinics. Brixadi’s weekly option can help patients still finding the right maintenance dose. Like Sublocade, Brixadi is ordered per-patient and administered at a follow-up visit once the medication arrives.

Individual counseling

Licensed therapists experienced in substance use disorder. Counseling for prescription-opioid patients often surfaces material specific to this pathway — the original pain event, the relationship with the original prescribing provider, the shame of needing pills to function, and the impact on the family of years of hidden use.

Intensive outpatient (IOP)

For patients who benefit from a more structured treatment schedule — delivered in a group format by design. IOP is the only group-setting service we offer, and it’s a separate, structured program rather than an informal group activity.

Integrated behavioral health

Integrated care for co-occurring conditions, including anxiety, depression, trauma, and hepatitis C. Behavioral health visits are at our Chattanooga clinic; the first is in person, and later ones can be by telehealth.

Chronic Pain Considerations

Many people with a hydrocodone problem started with a legitimate prescription for pain that is still real. We treat the opioid use disorder, and your pain care stays with your own doctor or pain provider; we never prescribe Suboxone for pain.

If you have a pain provider, we coordinate with them. The goal is one consistent plan between us, the pain provider, and you, instead of two medication lists that contradict each other. It’s a conversation worth having at intake.

Most patients with hydrocodone use disorder start MAT as outpatients — you leave your first visit with a Suboxone prescription, and your provider explains when to take the first dose at home. Some situations do need medical stabilization first: a severe untreated co-occurring psychiatric illness, or a serious medical complication, is an emergency that needs hospital-level care before outpatient treatment. Get those evaluated urgently, and we’ll get you started on MAT as soon as you’re medically cleared.

Not sure where to start?

You don’t have to be in withdrawal, and you don’t have to have stopped. Call and we’ll walk you through the first visit.

Request a Callback Verify Insurance

What to Expect at Your First Appointment

Your first visit typically lasts 2 to 3 hours and follows a four-step clinical flow. You leave the same day with a Suboxone prescription, and your provider explains when to take your first dose at home.

Intake

Paperwork, a DSM-5 assessment to confirm diagnosis and severity, and a COWS score to measure your current withdrawal state — the score helps your provider explain when to take your first dose at home.

Counseling

You meet a counselor to discuss your use history — including the original prescription pathway if that’s how it started — prior treatment, co-occurring conditions, and recovery goals. Any active pain management relationship or concern gets documented here.

Doctor evaluation

A provider reviews your intake, COWS score, and counselor notes, walks you through Suboxone, Sublocade, and Brixadi, and — for long Vicodin/Lortab/Norco histories — addresses any liver function or acetaminophen-related concern.

Prescription

You leave the same day with a Suboxone prescription. If you prefer the extended-release route, your provider orders Sublocade or Brixadi during this visit and you bridge on Suboxone until your injection appointment.

About 2–3 hours.You leave the same day with a Suboxone prescription.Bring a photo ID, insurance card, and a list of any medications.

What each step covers in detail+

Intake. A DSM-5 assessment to confirm opioid use disorder and its severity (mild, moderate, or severe, based on the 11 criteria met in a 12-month period), plus a COWS (Clinical Opiate Withdrawal Scale) score to measure your current withdrawal state. The COWS score helps your provider explain when you can take your first dose at home without risking precipitated withdrawal.

Counseling. You’ll meet with a counselor to discuss your substance use history — including the original prescription pathway if that’s how your use started — any previous treatment, any co-occurring mental health conditions, and your personal recovery goals. This is also where any active pain management relationship or concern gets documented.

Doctor evaluation. A medical provider reviews your intake, COWS score, and counselor notes. They walk you through the medication options (Suboxone, Sublocade, Brixadi), explain onset, side effects, and timing, and answer your questions. For patients with long Vicodin/Lortab/Norco histories, this is also where any liver function or acetaminophen-related concern is addressed.

Prescription and injection ordering. You leave the same day with a Suboxone prescription. If you prefer the extended-release route, your provider orders Sublocade or Brixadi during this visit — we don’t stock injections on-site — and you continue on Suboxone as a bridge. Your injection appointment is scheduled for a follow-up once the medication arrives, typically after a stabilization period on Suboxone. For Sublocade, that’s at least a week, and the first injection usually comes about a month after you start.

What to bring. A valid photo ID, your insurance card if applicable, and a list of any medications you currently take (including the hydrocodone product and dose, the original prescribing reason, and any pain medications or benzodiazepines). Our guide on what to expect at your first Suboxone appointment covers the process in more detail.

Insurance and Access

CARF-accredited outpatient addiction care

TennCare, BlueCare, BCBS, UHC, Medicare & most commercial insurance accepted. We verify your benefits before your first visit. Licensed in TN & GA · HIPAA · 42 CFR Part 2.

Don’t have insurance? Contact us anyway. We can check whether you may qualify for TennCare, and self-pay for medication-assisted treatment (MAT) is a flat $250 a month, with medication billed separately. For a full list of accepted carriers and the verification process, visit our insurance page.

Four Clinic Locations

We operate four outpatient clinics across Southeast Tennessee and North Georgia. All four offer hydrocodone addiction treatment, with same-day appointments on the days each is open.

Main office

Chattanooga, TN

6141 Shallowford Rd, Suite 100, Chattanooga, TN 37421

Mon–Fri · 9am–4:30pm

Full MAT formulary + on-site IOP

View clinic →

Bradley County

Cleveland, TN

2130 Chambliss Avenue NW, Cleveland, TN 37311

Tue & Thu · 9am–4:30pm

Full MAT formulary, incl. injections

View clinic →

Sequatchie Valley

Soddy-Daisy, TN

210 Walmart Drive, Suite 100, Soddy-Daisy, TN 37379

Mon & Wed · 9am–4:30pm

Oral MAT · injections at Chattanooga (25 min south)

View clinic →

Northwest Georgia

Ringgold, GA

4962 Battlefield Pkwy, Ringgold, GA 30736

Fri · 9am–4:30pm

Full MAT formulary · GA’s only clinic

View clinic →

Telehealth follow-up visits are available for established patients who have completed their initial in-person evaluation. Phones are answered Monday through Friday, 9am to 4:30pm Eastern. After hours? The 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline and the free, confidential SAMHSA National Helpline (1-800-662-4357) are available 24/7.

Recognizing it

Signs of Hydrocodone Use Disorder

Hydrocodone use disorder is a medical condition, not a character flaw. It also isn’t always loud. The prescription-opioid version of opioid dependence often looks like a person holding a normal-looking life together while the pills quietly run the math in the background. Common signs include:

Tolerance and dose escalation. The pills that worked when they were first prescribed don’t anymore — or the prescribed amount wears off sooner than it used to. Doses creep up. Two becomes three becomes four. The total daily amount is often well above what was originally prescribed.

Running out early. The 30-day prescription lasts 22 days. Then 18. Then 14. A pattern of frequent “lost” prescriptions, “stolen” bottles, or early refill requests is one of the clearest signals clinicians see.

Doctor-shopping or multi-sourcing. Visiting more than one provider to keep supply steady — urgent-care clinics, ER visits, a dentist, a pain clinic, a family doctor — often without each one knowing about the others. Since 2013, Tennessee law has required providers to check the state’s prescription database (the CSMD) before starting a patient on opioids or benzodiazepines, so this pattern is far easier to detect than it used to be, which often pushes patients toward the next sign.

Switching to cheaper or stronger alternatives. When the prescription access closes or becomes too expensive, patients commonly switch to illicit pills (“30s,” “Roxies,” off-the-street Lortab), to heroin, or — increasingly and unknowingly — to fentanyl. The same person who never dreamed they’d buy drugs on the street can end up doing exactly that, because the alternative is withdrawal.

Withdrawal fear driving use. Taking pills not for pain, not for any real feeling — just to not be sick. The morning dose before work. The extra dose before a family event because you know what 8 hours without one feels like. Life starts getting scheduled around dose timing.

Loss of control. Deciding you’ll only take two today and taking four. Deciding you’ll skip today and not being able to. Making and breaking the same “last pill” promise to yourself or a spouse for months or years.

Hiding use. Taking pills somewhere no one will see. Lying about how many are left. Emptying part of a bottle into a different container. This is often the first sign a family member notices — the behavior around the pills, not the pills themselves.

Liver or GI symptoms from the combination ingredient. High chronic doses of Vicodin, Lortab, or Norco also deliver high chronic doses of acetaminophen. Persistent fatigue, right-upper-quadrant abdominal pain, nausea, or jaundice can reflect acetaminophen-related liver strain and should be worked up. This is a medical concern distinct from the opioid dependence itself.

Continued use despite consequences. Using even when it’s costing you — financially, at work, in relationships, in health, in court. Continued use in the face of mounting consequences is one of the DSM-5 criteria for opioid use disorder.

You do not have to meet every item on this list. The formal DSM-5 threshold for opioid use disorder is 2 of 11 criteria in a 12-month period. Mild, moderate, and severe are all treatable — and treatment earlier is almost always easier than treatment later.

Hydrocodone Withdrawal: Timeline & Symptoms

Hydrocodone withdrawal is uncomfortable. For most healthy adults it is not life-threatening the way alcohol or benzodiazepine withdrawal can be, but it can be severe enough that many patients relapse simply to stop the symptoms. That’s the physiology of dependence, not a willpower problem — and medication-assisted treatment prevents the withdrawal instead of making you push through it. Hydrocodone is considered a short-to-medium-acting opioid — its half-life is roughly 3.8 hours, which means withdrawal onset is faster and more predictable than with longer-acting opioids or with lipid-stored opioids like fentanyl.

First 6–12 hours after last dose

Early symptoms

Anxiety, restlessness, irritability, muscle aches, yawning, watery eyes, runny nose, sweating, and craving. Sleep often becomes difficult the first night. This phase typically hits faster than fentanyl withdrawal (which can take 8–24+ hours to begin).

Day 1 – Day 3 · Peak

The peak

Full symptom picture: nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal cramping, chills alternating with sweating, dilated pupils, goosebumps (“kicking”), muscle and bone aches, profound fatigue, and intense cravings. Heart rate and blood pressure rise. Insomnia persists. This is the window when most unmedicated attempts to stop fail.

This is the stretch MAT is built for — buprenorphine prevents these symptoms, so most patients never go through the peak unmedicated.

Start treatment

Day 3 – Day 7

Acute symptoms ease

Acute GI symptoms gradually subside. Appetite may start to return. Sleep is still fragmented. Cravings remain strong. Low mood and anxiety often peak here as the body re-regulates.

Week 2 and beyond · Post-acute

Post-acute withdrawal

Low energy, difficulty concentrating, mood changes, anhedonia, and intermittent cravings can last weeks to several months. This doesn’t mean treatment is failing. The nervous system is slowly re-calibrating after years of opioid exposure, and MAT dramatically shortens and softens this phase.

Two considerations specific to hydrocodone

Combination-product considerations: if you’ve been taking high-dose Vicodin, Lortab, or Norco chronically, you’ve also been taking high-dose acetaminophen. Our intake providers routinely review liver function and can coordinate a liver panel when clinically appropriate — and starting MAT stops the ongoing acetaminophen exposure, which is itself a medical benefit. Induction timing: starting buprenorphine too early after your last hydrocodone dose can trigger precipitated withdrawal. The target window is typically a moderate COWS score, usually 6–24 hours after last use; for patients also exposed to fentanyl via counterfeit pills, the window is often longer (36–72 hours) because fentanyl clears more slowly. Your provider measures COWS at intake to assess your withdrawal state and explains when to take your first dose at home.

Why Medication-Assisted Treatment Works for Hydrocodone

For many patients, the fear of withdrawal is what keeps them stuck. MAT removes that barrier: the medication prevents withdrawal. MAT is endorsed as the standard of care for opioid use disorder, including prescription opioid use disorder specifically, by SAMHSA, NIDA, ASAM, and the World Health Organization. Buprenorphine-naloxone has also been tested in this population directly: the multisite POATS trial enrolled outpatients dependent on prescription opioids. Large-scale evidence shows that patients on buprenorphine-based MAT:

Have a much lower risk of fatal opioid overdose while they remain on medication
Stay in treatment significantly longer than those receiving counseling alone
Report fewer cravings and lower rates of illicit opioid use
Are more likely to maintain employment and stable housing during recovery
Have lower rates of infectious disease transmission associated with injection use

There’s a specific clinical advantage for hydrocodone patients worth naming. Because hydrocodone is shorter-acting and more predictable than fentanyl, buprenorphine induction is often smoother for pill-first patients. The COWS window is tighter and more reliable, the transition to steady-state buprenorphine is typically faster, and the subjective experience of starting treatment is usually described as relief within hours rather than the rougher, longer induction sometimes required after long fentanyl exposure. For patients who’ve been quietly dreading this step for months or years, that’s often the most surprising part of the first day on medication. Buprenorphine’s partial-agonist pharmacology also gives it a ceiling on euphoria and respiratory depression that full agonists like hydrocodone, oxycodone, and fentanyl don’t have, so blood levels stabilize, the daily peak-and-crash cycle disappears, and patients can engage in counseling, rebuild relationships, and return to work.

Evidence base: Sordo et al., 2017 (BMJ) mortality meta-analysis; SAMHSA, NIDA, ASAM, and WHO treatment guidelines for opioid use disorder; the POATS prescription-opioid buprenorphine-naloxone trial (Weiss et al., 2011, Archives of General Psychiatry); and 20+ years of buprenorphine cohort and trial data.

Why Restoration Recovery

Serving Chattanooga since 2017. Our providers have decades of clinical experience treating opioid and substance use disorders in Southeast Tennessee — through the prescription-opioid era, the heroin transition, and now the fentanyl contamination of the pill supply.

CARF accredited. The Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities is an independent, nonprofit accreditor that reviews treatment programs on-site against its published standards.

One integrated team. Medical providers and counselors at every clinic, with psychiatric care at our Chattanooga clinic. If you also have anxiety, depression, or hepatitis C, your providers coordinate that care with each other.

Four clinic locations across Southeast Tennessee and North Georgia, with telehealth follow-up available for established patients.

Most major insurance accepted — TennCare, Georgia Medicaid, commercial plans, Medicare, and supplemental Medicare. We verify your benefits before your first visit.

Same-day Suboxone appointments. You don’t have to wait weeks to start.

Licensed in both states. Tennessee and Georgia, HIPAA compliant, 42 CFR Part 2 compliant — your treatment is confidential from the first phone call.

Questions

Frequently Asked Questions

What if I’ve only been taking pills, not using fentanyl or heroin?+

Hydrocodone use disorder doesn’t have to progress to fentanyl or heroin to justify treatment — if you’re dependent on pills, you qualify. Even if you have never touched an illicit opioid, treatment is the same evidence-based MAT with Suboxone, Sublocade, or Brixadi. Induction is often smoother for pill-first patients than for long-term fentanyl patients, because hydrocodone is shorter-acting and its clearance is more predictable.

Is hydrocodone withdrawal less severe than fentanyl withdrawal?+

On balance, yes. Hydrocodone is shorter-acting (onset of withdrawal 6–12 hours after last dose versus 8–24+ hours for fentanyl), the peak phase is often shorter, and the clinical picture is more predictable. The peak discomfort at day 1–3 is still significant — body aches, sweats, nausea, diarrhea, anxiety, insomnia — and it’s more than enough to make an unmedicated quit attempt fail. MAT with buprenorphine prevents that phase rather than forcing you through it, and you leave your first visit with a Suboxone prescription.

Can I take Suboxone if I’ve only been using pills for a short time?+

Yes, if a DSM-5 assessment confirms opioid use disorder. Duration of use isn’t the clinical threshold — meeting 2 or more of the 11 DSM-5 criteria in a 12-month period is. Physical dependence can develop in a matter of weeks of daily use, and you can meet criteria after only a few months of escalating use. A short history doesn’t disqualify you from MAT, and catching dependence early almost always means a shorter, smoother recovery path than catching it years later.

I have chronic pain. Can you still treat my hydrocodone dependence?+

Yes. We treat the opioid use disorder. We do not treat chronic pain or prescribe Suboxone for it, so your pain care stays with your own doctor or pain provider. If you have a pain provider, we coordinate with them so there is one consistent plan instead of two medication lists.

What about counterfeit M30 pills — how do I know if the pills I’ve been using have fentanyl?+

Assume they do. Counterfeit M30 pills — pressed to look like oxycodone 30mg tablets, and in some cases like hydrocodone products — are the dominant illicit pill supply nationally. In 2023, U.S. law enforcement seized roughly 115 million counterfeit pills, accounting for about half of all fentanyl seizures that year. Approximately 6 in 10 seized counterfeit pills in 2022 contained a potentially lethal dose (at least 2 mg of fentanyl). If you’ve been buying pills outside of a pharmacy — any pills, from anyone — fentanyl exposure should be assumed. This doesn’t change the treatment path, but it changes the urgency: the sooner you start MAT, the sooner that exposure stops.

Do I have to stop pills cold turkey before my first visit?+

No. You shouldn’t stop cold turkey on your own, and you don’t need to be in full-blown withdrawal when you call. The COWS assessment at your first visit measures your current withdrawal state, and you leave that day with a Suboxone prescription and take the first dose at home. For hydrocodone specifically, the target induction window is typically 6–24 hours after your last dose — your provider will guide the exact timing at your first visit. Starting too early risks precipitated withdrawal, so wait for the timing your provider gives you.

4 clinics across Tennessee & North Georgia

Ready to start hydrocodone addiction treatment?

Same-day appointments available, and most major insurance is accepted. Hydrocodone addiction is treatable — whether your use started with a Vicodin prescription after surgery, a Lortab script for back pain that never quite went away, or somewhere messier than that. You don’t need all the answers before you call, and you don’t need to be clean before your first appointment. Our team will walk you through every step, from your first call to your first visit and every follow-up after.

Request a callback Call 423-498-2000

Hydrocodone Addiction Treatment in Tennessee

From your first call to your first dose

Call 423-498-2000

Your benefits, checked first

About 2–3 hours, four steps

A Suboxone prescription the same day

What Is Hydrocodone?

What’s in the bottle

TN opioid prescribing, peak → decline

Schedule III to Schedule II

From the Prescription Pad to the Pill Bottle

Counterfeit pills seized nationally

How We Treat Hydrocodone Addiction

Suboxone (daily film or tablet)

Sublocade (monthly injection)

Brixadi (weekly or monthly)

Individual counseling

Intensive outpatient (IOP)

Integrated behavioral health

Chronic Pain Considerations

What to Expect at Your First Appointment

Intake

Counseling

Doctor evaluation

Prescription

Insurance and Access

Four Clinic Locations

Chattanooga, TN

Cleveland, TN

Soddy-Daisy, TN

Ringgold, GA

Signs of Hydrocodone Use Disorder

Hydrocodone Withdrawal: Timeline & Symptoms

Early symptoms

The peak

Acute symptoms ease

Post-acute withdrawal

Why Medication-Assisted Treatment Works for Hydrocodone

Why Restoration Recovery

Frequently Asked Questions

Ready to start hydrocodone addiction treatment?