Slashdot Mirror
FDA Considers Banning Acetaminophen-Based Pain Killers
Greg George writes "The FDA has determined that Tylenol enhancing pain killers are dangerous enough to potentially be pulled from the market. Drugs including Vicodin, Hydrocodone, Lortab, Maxidone, Norco, Zydone, Tylenol with codeine, Percocet, Endocet, and Darvocet may be permanently banned from the US market, even if the patient has a prescription from a doctor. The problem is the key ingredient — acetaminophen — can easily damage or destroy a patient's liver if more than 2000 mg are used per day. In many cases that means if you take a pain killer and then take two extra strength Tylenol, you may have gone over the maximum dosage per day."
So when will the FDA ban alcohol for destroying people's livers?
Seriously here. Why not make sure that there are STRONG WARNINGS on these drugs and require that they also place the warnings on TV Ads (not just in the small print, but actually required spoken warning about exceeding the 2000mg limit, and mention that other drugs like prescription pain killers may also contain this substance and to check with your doctor). I mean, if people know that over-dosing on this WILL seriously damage and potentially kill your liver, they will pay a little more attention to how much they are taking...
As it currently is, with the current ads and warnings, more people think that something like Tylenol with Codeine is pretty safe to take. I mean, its Tylenol, safe for your stomach (too bad just not necessarily safe for your liver).
We were all warned a long time ago that MS products sucked, remember the Magic 8 Ball said, "Outlook not so good"
Most people have no idea what the maximum safe dosage of acetaminophen is. And even if they do, the point is that it's easy to take your vicodin prescription and then take some Nyquil without realizing that Nyquil has acetaminophen as well. The average person is not a pharmacist, and really shouldn't be expected to be one.
When I had surgery on my hand my doctor's instructions for frequency of use on the vicoden would have put me over the 4000mg limit. The pharmacist told me I needed to make sure I only took 5 a day instead of 6 (or something like that, can't quite remember what the frequency was anymore).
Now imagine my doctor had written the prescription correctly for 5 doses a day. There's no reason for most people to know the maximum daily dose value. It would have been quite easy to take the maximum dosage just on pain pills, then take a few doses per day of some OTC med (maybe something for allergies) that lists acetaminophen in the small print and exceed the max dose by quite a bit. Nyquil Sinus for example has 650mg per dose and allows up to 6 per day. Accidentally exceeding 4000mg would be easy.
my wife sees it all the time - dead livers. The concern isn't for people taking this on prescription. They can get a different preparation if necessary. Good riddance. Better yet, get rid of the whole prescription regime. Many doctors are sick of being the narcotic gate keeper. On one side is the DEA looking to pull your license and prosecute, on the other a patient who may or may no be in pain. It's the doctors responsibility to correctly identify drug seekers. Chronic pain rarely kills. What would you do if your livelihood could be taken away for prescribing narcotics to a patient who you believed to be in pain, but was a very clever junkie? I have a feeling there are a lot of chronic pain sufferers that aren't having their pain managed correctly because their physician fears being accused of over prescribing narcotics. More senseless shit brought to you by the War on Drugs. As the late but not so great Bill Hicks said - it's not a war on drugs, it's a war on personal freedom.
46 & 2