If 2 Painkillers Are Banned, What Next? | Arthritis Information

THURSDAY, July 2 (HealthDay News) -- Banning the popular painkillers Percocet and Vicodin, which a U.S. health advisory panel has urged, would not be as drastic as it sounds, some medical experts contend.

The reason, they say, is that other options are available.

A U.S. Food and Drug Administration advisory panel made its recommendation Tuesday. It followed the release in May of an FDA report that found that many consumers aren't aware that severe liver damage, and even death, can result from overuse of acetaminophen, which is easier on the stomach than such painkillers as aspirin and ibuprofen.

Vicodin and Percocet combine acetaminophen with an opiate narcotic in one pill. Vicodin contains the narcotic hydrocodone, and Percocet contains oxycodone. Both drugs are prescribed to treat moderate to severe pain.

But acetaminophen is the active ingredient in such popular over-the-counter pain relievers as Tylenol and Excedrin. And consumers may also not know that acetaminophen is present in many other over-the-counter products, including remedies for colds, headaches and fevers, making it possible to exceed the recommended acetaminophen dose.

http://healthday.com/Article.asp?AID=628672In my mind, this is long over due. It has become far too easy to achieve overdose on Tylenol simply because it is in so many common over the counter drugs. I have long cautioned my sons to look for acetaminophen on the label and ask their doctors if a prescribed drug has this ingredient.

Thanks Lynn.
I dont know...Crown Royal maybe...If any of you need to know how to cold filter, ask Lev, he is a pro. I'm sure he would be glad to help you out. He also can help you to achieve that ultimate high you strive to get from optimal cold filtering. These two drugs need to be banned, they are bad and horribly abused.[QUOTE=lorster]If any of you need to know how to cold filter, ask Lev, he is a pro. I'm sure he would be glad to help you out. He also can help you to achieve that ultimate high you strive to get from optimal cold filtering. These two drugs need to be banned, they are bad and horribly abused.[/QUOTE]

If you read the entire article, you will see that it's more about eliminating the acetaminophen than the meds being abused. Apparently they have a solution forthcoming :

"It really makes sense to do what the panel is suggesting," said Dr. Scott Fishman, chief of the pain medicine division and a professor of anesthesiology at the University of California, Davis, and president of the American Pain Foundation. "The key is that the public needs to understand that they [the FDA] are not voting to ban the drugs [contained in the pill: the opiate and acetaminophen]. The drugs are fine. It's the combination of the drugs in one pill. Each drug has its own problems but, used separately, can be used safely."

"I agree in theory with what they [the FDA advisers] are doing because ... even though experts say 4,000 milligrams [of acetaminophen] is a toxic dose, some people believe as little as 2,000 can cause liver problems," said Dr. Joseph Shurman, chairman of pain management at Scripps Memorial Hospital in La Jolla, Calif.

And some people can achieve pain relief from just one of the components in Percocet, he explained.

Oxycodone alone is "probably just as effective for pain," Shurman said. "Tylenol [acetaminophen] theoretically is for pain and fever, but some people question if it has an anti-inflammatory effect. We're not sure of the exact mechanism."

Currently there is no pill that contains hydrocodone alone, but Shurman said that a slow-release version is close to arriving on the market.

Patients and doctors do need to guard against using too much of either the narcotic or the acetaminophen if only one is being taken at a time, Shurman said.

But an even bigger concern, he said, is use of over-the-counter acetaminophen products, of which Tylenol and Excedrin are among the most popular.

Lynn492009-07-02 15:24:22[QUOTE=LisaOnline]I dont know...Crown Royal maybe...[/QUOTE]

Are you an alcoholic, maybe you should try the AA boards?

[QUOTE=waddie]In my mind, this is long over due. It has become far too easy to achieve overdose on Tylenol simply because it is in so many common over the counter drugs. I have long cautioned my sons to look for acetaminophen on the label and ask their doctors if a prescribed drug has this ingredient.

Thanks Lynn.
[/QUOTE

But the committee voted not to change or ban the OTC combos...they contradicted themselves. I suspect there are far more probems from people who mix alcohol with acetaminophen than there is with people who take prescription painkillers.

Well,

Now everyone can understand why I cold filtered the acetaminophen out of my pain meds. I was taking 25mg of methotrexate also so I had a very serious concern about putting the liver killer acetaminophen thru my liver along with the MTX. See how smart I am Lorster. I guess I'm not smart, I just think. I think that one of my doctors told me that more opiod junkies die from liver failure rather than from overdose. I do have the recipe for coldfiltering and it can be found on the internet. Dr. Clay told me that removing the acetaminophen does not raise the drugs potency but actually lowers the potency. Lorster, aawww dude. Also cold filtering loses probaby 5-10 % of the opiod.

LEV

Then why do they even bother putting acetaminophen in the drug? Why not just dispense both drugs without it??????????????Seriously I think it was put into the drugs to keep people from taking to much of the medicine.But it seems to be back firing on them.

Lev I saw a show once along time ago I do not remeber the name of it. They covered an entire town that had turned into oxycodone addicts. They were robbing cancer patients and drug stores. People that used to be productive members of society. The problem with cold filtering is that the drug does not release on a time continuin even if you are taking less of it you get a larger amount all at once. Plus I think they put something in it to make you feel sick if you take to much so one would be less inclined to take to much if they cold vilter there medication. I mean oxy does not have tylonol in it. These adddicts were cold viltering it for a reason. I have never tried oxy or percocets either one. It was very many years ago when I saw this show so I am working off of memory which is scketchy some days. After all I do take Vicoden.

milly2009-07-02 20:11:37

time released pain med.

Forbes has added this to the debate...
[quote]Narcotic painkillers such as hydrocodone and oxycodone run the risk of being abused. "We want to get tighter control," Fishman said.

Using two pills instead of one, if needed, would enable physicians to better fine-tune the amount of each drug that their patients would be getting, reducing the risk of an overdose of acetaminophen. An estimated 42,000 Americans are treated in hospitals each year for acetaminophen overdoses, half of which are accidental.

"I agree in theory with what they [the FDA advisers] are doing because ... even though experts say 4,000 milligrams [of acetaminophen] is a toxic dose, some people believe as little as 2,000 can cause liver problems," said Dr. Joseph Shurman, chairman of pain management at Scripps Memorial Hospital in La Jolla, Calif.

And some people can achieve pain relief from just one of the components in Percocet, he explained.

Oxycodone alone is "probably just as effective for pain," Shurman said. "Tylenol [acetaminophen] theoretically is for pain and fever, but some people question if it has an anti-inflammatory effect. We're not sure of the exact mechanism."

Currently there is no pill that contains hydrocodone alone, but Shurman said that a slow-release version is close to arriving on the market.[/quote]

As has already been said, this is an important issue for each of us.
Milly,

The opiods that I was taking was not time released and so absolutely no changing of effectiveness, only loosing a small amount of the opiod, thus less effective. I am sure that the reason that the addicts were coldfiltering the opiods is to save the livers, not to enhance the opiod effect. There is no way to coldfilter an opiod pain med and not lose some of the opiod. And again, I prefer to use prednosone to control inflammation and pain over pain meds. I do have oxycodone but use it as needed. It is oxycodone hcl, nothing added. Pain meds bring on a whole list of dangerous side effects. Even the side effects of the side effects can be severe and life threatening. People still don't understand the seriousness of opiod constipation, it's dangerous. A part of the brain will actually mimmick the pain that the opoid is taken for just to get more opiod. Again, I don't care what people take and I know that there certainly is good reasons for pain meds.

LEV