The FDA recommend ban of popular painkillers

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The FDA recommend ban of popular painkillers

July 1, 2009 – 4:14 pm – No Comment

Vicodin and Percocet are high on the list of drugs the Food and Drug Administration want to see banned in the United States.

These two very popular painkillers are recommended for banning not because of their potential for addiction but because of their acetaminophen content and its effects on the liver. High doses of acetaminophen (also found in over the counter pain killers like Tylenol and Excedrin) have been known to cause liver damage and liver damage from acetaminophen kills more than 400 people in the United States each year. Anyone suffering from dependency on these types of medications should consider painkiller rehab programs.

Both Vicodin and Percocet mix acetaminophen with a narcotic to help in pain relief. If the ban goes through the FDA, then other pain killers which mix the two will also likely be banned. Popular pain killers in that category include Darvocet (which has a fairly large group of people upset with the drug) and Lortab.

The recommendation also included limiting the “maximum” dosage for acetaminophen to 650 milligrams, way down from the current 1,000 milligrams on the extra strength Tylenol bottle.

It is likely a surprise to those who currently take the drugs for pain relief. Honestly, after reading some comments on the story across the internet it doesn’t make a lot of sense why the FDA wouldn’t just limit the amount of acetaminophen in the drug rather than doing away with something that is commonly prescribed to patients all the time.

There are some people out there who have stomach issues who can’t take aspirin or NSAIDS because of the chances that they may cause ulcers. They are told if they have pain of any kind to take Tylenol. So, what happens to those people if they end up in the hospital and prescribed pain medicine?

This is something the FDA really needs to look at before accepting the recommendation and banning the drugs.

In no articles I came across did it say what the FDA recommended for a “safe” dose of acetaminophen in these drugs.