Prescription Pain Killers Are Given Limitations

Percocet and Vicodin will be banned, as a 20 to 17 vote passed from outside advisors to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) last week.  The drug acetaminophen, which is reportedly linked to liver damage, will be reduced in the over the counter drug Tylenol.  Tylenol, which is made by Johnson and Johnson, will be given a lower dose, and extra strength Tylenol will be sold only by prescription.  Les Funtleyder, a healthcare analyst at Miller Tabak & Co. in New York said:  “The reality is we’ve known for some time that Tylenol plus alcohol is potentially damaging to livers, and we’ve also known that way too much is damaging to livers, it’s not a huge surprise.’’

The Aspirin alternative acetaminophen has been used for over 50 years, and was designed to reduce pain and fever, unfortunately is has been the leading cause of liver problems over the last ten years.  Abbot Laboratories that sells Vicodin, which has become a very popular drug in the United States, sold over 120 million prescriptions last year.  Between the years 1990 and 2001, acetamophen was linked to 458 deaths and 26 thousand hospitalizations in the United States.  This is according to an FDA review that was released prior to these meetings starting.  It was also reported that acetamophen was the leading cause for acute liver failure. 

The 500mg tablets of Tylenol consisted of 90% of all the sales in the United States for drugs that contained acetaminophen in them.  The Food and Drug Administration reported that 25 billion doses of acetaminophen were sold in the US in 2008.  The only concern that came out of this meeting was, if limiting the access to drugs that contain acetaminophen could lead consumers to other drugs, for example ibuprofen, which has a risk of causing gastrointestinal bleeding.  Because admissions into drug rehab programs see many individuals battling prescription and over the counter drug problems, little steps like this can make a difference in preventing addictions from occurring.  

If you or someone you know is battling a drug or alcohol addiction, call the Narconon drug rehab program toll free line at, 1-877-782-7409, or visit the website at, http://narconon.ca/

© 2009 Narconon Trois-Rivières. All Rights Reserved.

NARCONON is a trademark and service mark owned by Association for Better Living and Education and is used with its permission.