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Opioid dose equivalence (oral morphine as the reference)

Oncology & dosing

Approximate conversion ratios from the palliative-care formularies. Incomplete cross-tolerance means a switch should be reduced by 25–50% and titrated.

What you enter

  • From: Oral morphine / Oral oxycodone / Oral codeine / Oral tramadol / Oral hydromorphone / Subcutaneous / IV morphine / Subcutaneous diamorphine / Oral tapentadol
  • Total 24-hour dose (mg)
FORMULAOral morphine mg = dose × factor (oxycodone 1.5, codeine 0.1, tramadol 0.1, hydromorphone 5, SC morphine 2, SC diamorphine 3, tapentadol 0.4)
SourceBNF: Prescribing in palliative care, equivalent doses of opioid analgesics; Palliative Care Formulary (PCF8) opioid conversion tableReviewedFormula and thresholds checked against the source on 2026-08-22. If the source updates, this line will say so.