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."

Comments

Re:If You Drink Alcohol Avoid Acetaminophen

[geekoid]

well, your older sister needs to learn how to read studies and not repeat lies spread on the internet.

Re:Only because of stupid people.

[Spy Handler]

Well considering you and I will be paying for the liver transplants (if Obama gets his way) of all these stupid people who can't understand the label on the bottle, yes I think a ban is not unreasonable.

About 50% of the population has BELOW AVERAGE I.Q. - lower than 100.

Re:If You Drink Alcohol Avoid Acetaminophen

[Anonymous Coward]

So instead of being a total douche, why not refute the statement with some cold hard facts?

You'll still be a douche, but not a total douche.

Douche.

Re:not really a ban

[Anonymous Coward]

If you want to kill yourself

1) dig a hole deep, wide and long enough for you to lie inside with no bits sticking out.
2) lie inside with explosives around your head.
3) detonate the explosives.

Basically if done right you shouldn't feel any pain due to the explosion since your brain etc will be gone before the pain signals arrive.

And after you're done someone could just fill in the hole to cover some of the mess that's left.

Re:I for one

[mcgrew]

Elections have Consequences.

Yes, we found that out when President Bush and Vice President Cyborg* ran our country for eight years. Now we have a tremendous debt, two wars (one based on false information), a melted economy (thanks, deregulation), and a crumbling infrastructure. When you elect people who think government is always the problem into government, you're not likely to get good government, now are you?

They're not outlawing tylenol, what they're outlawing is hiding it inside other drugs. It's not a nanny state protecting you from yourself, it's your elected officials protecting you from the corporate Ferengi.

As to your nanny state, it's the Republicans who are most loathe to let me smoke a joint. As someone who has had arthritis for over forty years, that pisses me off greatly. Reefer helps, especially when mixed with beer and naproxin.

* That's not a slam, his pacemaker makes him a cyborg just like my eye implant makes me one. You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile.

Isn't that the point?

[bkaul]

Yes, let's protect people from their own stupidity.

I agree in principle with your opposition to a nanny state. But isn't the the whole reason the FDA mandates that some drugs be available by prescription only to protect them from their own stupidity? Considering that these drugs are already only available by prescription, I'm not sure I see the point in further restrictions, since they can be safely used as directed, but ...

Re:not really a ban

[Red Flayer]

What, do you work for Bayer or something?

So there is not, and has never been, a valid reason for creating acetaminophen based competitors to the aspirin based compounds that were prevalent before 1980. Such as Emperin #3 (replaced by Tylenol #3), APC, APC with Codeine, and so on.

The problem with aspirin in this regard is that about three decades ago several marketing campaigns were pushing Tylenol products by putting undue emphasis on aspirin sometimes causing stomach distress in some people. This was before it was known that stomach ulcers were caused by a bacterial infection, and it was easy to suggest that too much aspirin could be causing some ulcers.

What? ASA (aspirin) is much less selective for COX2 receptors than APAP (acetominophen). While neither is as selective as, say, celecoxib (which has its own problems), it's well known in the field of drug development that this is the case.

Re: the higher margin between therapeutic level and destructive overdose level, I'm not sure, and I can;t be bothered to look up the LD50 and therapeutic levels right now. What I DO know is that the margin between minimum therapeutic level and minimum toxicity level is much smaller for ASA than APAP. For a lot of people, side effects from ASA are experience at a *lower* blood concentration than the minimum therapeutic level.

Two more notes. ASA in kids can be very dangerous due to risk of Reye's syndrome. So much so that many parents choose not to have ASA in the house at all. And the anticoagulant side effect of ASA means that anyone who has suffered physical trauma should not take ASA without consulting with a doctor.

Taken as directed, APAP is safer than ASA. The problem is the morons who think instructions don't apply to them.

Re:House, MD

[mr_stinky_britches]

For your headaches.. have you tried drinking more water? Do you regularly drink 8 large glasses every 24 hours? If not, your headaches or migraines may very well becaused by dehydration. This may seem obvious, but the reality is that many computer/engineering types walk around dehydrated all the time. Hence their nasty breath.

Good Luck.