Hydrocodone

Drug Usage Statistics, United States, 2014 - 2024

Hydrocodone Summary for 2024

Top drug rank	#383 ( 46)
Estimated number of prescriptions in the United States (2024)	15,671
Estimated number of patients in the United States (2024)	3,134

Average total drug cost (USD)
Per prescription	$978.73
Per day of therapy	$36.16/day
Average out-of-pocket cost (USD)
Per prescription	$7.86
Per day of therapy	$0.30/day

Total Prescriptions and Patients Per Year (2014 - 2024)

Rank of Top Drugs Over Time

"Rank" refers to the frequency that a given medication is prescribed within a calendar year compared to all other medications. A rank of "4" would indicate that the medication was the fourth most commonly prescribed medication.

Year	Rank	Change
2014	447	-
2015	82	365
2016	112	30
2017	118	6

Year	Rank	Change
2018	402	284
2021	319	-
2023	337	-
2024	383	46

Drug Cost Over Time (2014 - 2024)

Cost Per Prescription Fill: Average cost per filled prescription regardless of how many days of therapy the prescription is filled for (e.g. 10 days, 30 days, 90 days, etc.)
Cost per Day of Therapy: The average cost per prescription fill divided by the days of therapy. For example, a 10-day antibiotic course costing $30 would be $3 per day. Similarly, a 30-day supply of an oral antihypertensive costing $30 would be $1 per day.

Total cost: The average total cost of the medication including the out-of-pocket cost (see below) plus the amount paid by other parties (Medicare, Medicaid, private insurance, Veterans Administration, TRICARE, other state/federal sources, Worker's compensation, and other miscellaneous sources)
Out-of-pocket cost: The average payment made by the patient which may include deductibles, coinsurance, copayments, or the cash price paid without insurance coverage.

Cost Per Prescription Fill (USD)

Cost Per Day of Therapy (USD/day)

Distribution of Dispensed Dosage Forms (2024)

Dosage Form	Strength	% of Dispensed Products
Tablet/capsule	60 mg	100.0%

Distribution of Days Supplied (2024)

"Days supply" is defined as the number of days that a prescription should last. For example, a prescription of 60 tablets that is taken twice daily has a day supply of 30 days.

Related Drugs

Drug Name	Total Prescriptions (2024)
Acetaminophen; Hydrocodone	19,132,427
Tramadol	14,950,505
Oxycodone	13,425,058
Acetaminophen; Oxycodone	7,971,731
Morphine	2,684,280
Acetaminophen; Codeine	1,974,976
Loperamide	1,765,231
Codeine; Guaifenesin	1,017,179
Homatropine; Hydrocodone	128,787
Codeine	57,087
Hydrocodone (this drug)	15,672
Hydrocodone; Chlorpheniramine	14,274

Therapeutic Classes

Drug Synonyms

Drug synonyms are used during the sanitation and standardization process of "cleaning" the original data source (MEPS). Occassionally, brand names may be listed below that are no longer on the market or are very infrequently used.

Brand Name Synonyms

N/A

Generic Drug Synonyms and Salts

Hydrocodone

FDA Approval Information

Established Pharmacologic Class (EPC):	Opioid Agonist
Initial FDA approval date:	Prior to January 1, 1982
First FDA applicant:	Discn
First dosage form:	Tablet (oral)

Prescription data source: Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) 2014-2024. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), Rockville, MD. ClinCalc DrugStats Database version 2026.08. Read more about the ClinCalc DrugStats database.

All ClinCalc DrugStats figures and graphs on this page are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0).

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Updated Apr 15, 2025

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