The panel found that acetaminophen causes liver damage when overused and that the chance for death when the drug is combined with an opiate is substantially higher than when it is used by itself. As a result, they voted to ban those combinations - Percocet, Vicodin - and lower the maximum daily allowance of OTC drugs that contain acetaminophen, such as Tylenol.
ajc.com wrote:TUESDAY, June 30 (HealthDay News) -- The popular prescription painkillers Vicodin and Percocet, which combine acetaminophen with an opiate narcotic, should be banned, and the maximum dose of over-the-counter painkillers with acetaminophen, like Tylenol or Excedrin, should be lowered, a U.S. Food and Drug Administration advisory panel urged Tuesday.
The panel's recommendations followed the release of an FDA report last month that found severe liver damage, and even death, can result from a lack of consumer awareness that acetaminophen -- which is easier on the stomach than such painkillers as aspirin and ibuprofen -- can cause such injury.
The dangers from use or abuse of Vicodin and Percocet may be even more concerning, one key panelist said.
"It seems to me that problems with opiate combinations are clearly more prevalent," Dr. Lewis S. Nelson, chairman of the FDA's Drug Safety and Risk Management Advisory Committee, said during a Tuesday press conference held after the two-day meeting.
Explaining the panel's 20-17 vote to ban prescription acetaminophen/opiate drugs, Nelson said, "There are many deaths that relate to problems with prescription opiate combination acetaminophen products, whereas the number of deaths clearly related to the over-the-counter products are much more limited."
Art Vandelay wrote:Street value of all my left over pain meds just skyrocketed. Score!
They expire in like 12 months tho. Better sell them quick!
Meh prescription drugs don't really expire for like 10 years or more. If anything they are just less potent. So if it's your heart meds yea stick to the expiration date. but otherwise it's just a government conspiracy. Manufacturers are legally required by a law in 79 to put expirations on them. Obviously the shorter the expiration the more money they make.
Art Vandelay wrote:Street value of all my left over pain meds just skyrocketed. Score!
They expire in like 12 months tho. Better sell them quick!
Meh prescription drugs don't really expire for like 10 years or more. If anything they are just less potent. So if it's your heart meds yea stick to the expiration date. but otherwise it's just a government conspiracy. Manufacturers are legally required by a law in 79 to put expirations on them. Obviously the shorter the expiration the more money they make.
Right I wouldn't want them to lose potency. But the conspiracy sounds good.
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