Posted on 01/15/2011 1:08:23 PM PST by EBH
Federal health regulators are limiting a key ingredient found in Vicodin, Percocet and other prescription painkillers that have been linked to thousands of cases of liver damage each year.
The Food and Drug Administration said Thursday it will cap the amount of acetaminophen in the drugs at 325 milligrams per capsule. Current products on the market contain doses of up to 700 milligrams.
Acetaminophen is a ubiquitous pain reliever found in Tylenol, Nyquil and thousands of other medicines used to treat headaches, fever and sore throats. The ingredient is also used at larger doses in prescription combination drugs that mix it with narcotic drugs like oxycodone.
Those products are not dangerous by themselves but can cause toxic overdoses when patients combine them with a second acetaminophen-containing drug like Tylenol.
FDA officials said the labeling on prescription drugs often does not make it clear that they contain acetaminophen, instead using abbreviations for the ingredient like 'APAP.'
"One of the real challenges we have is that patients taking these products don't know they're taking acetaminophen at all," said FDA deputy director for new drugs, Dr. Sandra Kweder, in a telephone briefing with reporters. "They don't realize that they are overdosing."
The FDA said it is working with pharmacies and other medical groups to develop standard labeling for acetaminophen, though that is not part of Thursday's action.
Agency officials said the drugs will still be effective at lower doses.
"The amount of acetaminophen in these products has gradually crept up over the years," Kweder said. "If you look at these products 20 to 30 years ago, many did not contain high doses of acetaminophen."
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
DOH...i wouldve never thought that synthetic opiates needed a ‘kicker’ to make em work...
People have different pain tolerances.... p>BTW.....I don't like Naproxen either. Too many side effects with long-term use. :)
So does aspirin and all the other non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, aka NSAIDs. It's called NSAID nephropathy. It can progress to renal failure and the need for dialysis or a kidney transplant. NSAIDs can also cause gastric and duodenal ulcers and gastrointestinal bleeding. Acetaminophen, Tylenol, is not an NSAID. It does nothing for inflammation.
Aspirin is the safest pain reliever for most folks.......but it does act as a blood thinner....so if you’re on Plavix....it wouldn’t be a good idea.
Aspirin irreversibly inhibits platelet aggregation. The other NSAIDs reversibly inhibit platelet aggregation. So if you're taking an aspirin for your heart, take the aspirin 1 - 2 hours before any NSAID. If someone had a myocardial infarction, aka "heart attack," the cardiologist will often have their patients taking both aspirin and plavix.
It uses peptides from cobra venom.
Can we 'buy American' and taunt rattlesnakes instead?
Speaking of vipers, I just pinged you to Essential oil pill prevents PMS.
Thanks for the link.
The reports I've read over the years, convinced me to not use Tylenol or Motrin on a continuing basis because they don't metabolize as easily and flush from the body. (have seen a big jump in liver/kidney cancers since the introduction of Tylenol/Advil)
Most Docs I know wouldn't give full strength aspirin dosages (650mg) to someone taking Plavix unless they've recently had a stent placement and are under careful observation. They usually prescribe 81mg daily to heart patients. If there are some Docs who do prescribe high dosages of aspirin w/Plavix on a daily basis..I would be greatly interested in finding out how/why they believe the benefits outweigh the risk of hemorrhage?
Aspirin "irreversably inhibits platelet aggregation"? If that were true... you wouldn't have to continue it on a daily basis to acquire the benefits. After all the aspirin I've taken over my lifetime....I'd bleed like a stuck pig with every nick. That just doesn't happen.
The website you posted is interesting. I will have to read it more thoroughly and check out the data. :)
It's true. The lifespan of platelets is only 8 - 9 days. It knocks out the cyclooxygenase in platelets. Aspirin itself has a halflife. It's normal pharmacology and physiology. I spelled irreversably wrong. Enter "Aspirin irreversibly inhibits platelet aggregation" into a search engine with those quotation marks.
The same thing happened to my mom. The docs were on the fence for a few months about whether or not to look into a transplant. She managed to bounce back. I think thaqt the only reason she survived is that she never touches alcohol.
It’s been six years and she just had her first normal liver panel last fall.
I take vicodin for an old back injury. When I discussed my aversion to taking Tylenol and asked for the medicine containing ibuprofen, I was told that I was now a “red flag” patient. I guess that people abusing the drug to get high make that request so they can safely take more. It doesn’t matter that five years ago I was involved in a conversation with my family about who would be the one to donate half their liver to my teetotaling mom just a few years ago. Or that I was concerned about the massive amounts of Tylenol I took in my 20’s before I knew better.
Now the FDA is backing up my concerns.
Doctors are loathe to prescribe narcotics of any kind. Not because of the patient's proclivity to abuse the drugs, but for their own professional safety. The DEA MONITORS NARCOTIC PRESCRIPTIONS made by doctors. If you write TOO MANY, you, the doc, get "RED FLAGGED" by the DEA, and a visit from the Feds and and total inspection of all your patients' records is forthcoming. You could lose your "privilege" of writing narcotic prescriptions totally.....
How come, if I want an abortion, there is a “wall of privacy” that shields anything that happens in the dr’s office; but if my dr and I decide that I need pain relief, it’s the business of government officials?
WOD stupidity...................
How are your kidneys doing?
They get tested every 6 months....BTW, got two of them...only one liver.
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