Vicodin is Gregory House’s best-known pain medication in House M.D.
House uses Vicodin to manage chronic pain caused by an infarction in the quadriceps muscle of his right leg. His reliance on the drug becomes a major source of conflict, affecting his health, judgment, employment, and relationships.
Vicodin is a brand name for a prescription combination containing hydrocodone and acetaminophen. The show uses House’s dependence as part of his characterization, but its depiction of addiction is a dramatic narrative rather than a guide to medical treatment.
Viewers sometimes name another opioid associated with real-world pain treatment, but House’s signature medication is Vicodin. The series repeatedly returns to the problem of whether his diagnostic brilliance justifies his dangerous behavior.