Drug Rehab Needed for Over The Counter Drug Addiction

Has NyQuil become such a problem that is has to be pulled off the shelves?  According to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA); it has become a problem.  This week the FDA has taken two days to meet and vote on different ways to prevent overdoses caused by acetaminophen, the pain relieving and fever reducing drug found in Tylenol and many other over the counter drugs.  Dr. Lee Simon, an associate professor at Harvard Medical School, commenting about over the counter drugs said: "Obviously it's important that we improve the communication about these products because they are ubiquitous, and we still see people inadvertently overdosing."

There has been many years of federal actions and educational campaigns all dedicated to helping people understand the risks involved with OTC drugs, but the drug acetaminophen is still the leading cause for liver failure in the United States, and in fact close to 60,000 people entered emergency rooms because of this each year, and this is also combined with 200 deaths a year because of this drug.  The products that the FDA could have removed include Procter and Gambles NyQuil and Novartis’s Theraflu.  Millions of dollars could be lost, but thousands of people’s lives could be helped.  The sales alone within the United States for all drugs containing acetaminophen reached $2.6 billion last year, and in fact over 80% of this market is a direct result of over the counter drug sales. 

These types of drugs are very addictive and are a common drug of choice for many teens.  They are cheap and easy to purchase.  This problem goes hand in hand with the problems of DXM addiction, an addictive drug found in cough suppressants, which is being abused by teens in the United States.  Many drug rehab programs are seeing these problems quite often; with families inquiring about how to handle there teens drug addiction to OTC drugs.  The industries selling these products do defend themselves, saying that only 10% of deaths associated to acetaminophen were caused from OTC drugs.  This information comes from the Consumer Healthcare Products Association.  No matter how you look at it, OTC drug addiction is a growing concern in the United States and Canada.  More effective prevention must be done to help save the lives of thousands of teens.  For more information about OTC drug addiction call the Narconon drug rehab help line at, 1-877-782-7409, or visit http://narconon.ca/

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