 [ Symptoms ] i have had a violent reaction to vicodin after surgery would this explain my nausea after taking codeine  the vicodin caused violent retching several years ago i took the codeine based cough suppressant last night and my nausea did not happen until this morning [ Disease ] it could be from a similar cause since codeine has a similar active ingredient to vicodin vicodin has hydrocodone and acetomeniphen codeine is simply codeine phosphate and is not as strong but both are opiates perhaps you have a sensitivity to them