FDA: Lower Tylenol doses, eliminate Vicodin, Percocet

Government experts called for sweeping safety restrictions Tuesday on the most widely used painkiller, including reducing the maximum dose of Tylenol and eliminating prescription drugs such as Vicodin and Percocet.

[what about after Surgery]

How are people to deal post surgery pain without Vicodin & Percocet??? A little to far off the deep end...

[Native]

They want vicodine eliminated because it is too cheap. It's safe and effective but the pharmaceutical companies don't make any money on it. All the people who died from it were misusing it. We should ban cars too because misuse can lead to death.

[ces survivor]

Let them live with a partial paralysis like I have, with horrible nerve pain and then tell them they cant have medication to control it. This is crazy.

[Nigerian Cardiologist]

what about after Surgery wrote:

How are people to deal post surgery pain without Vicodin & Percocet??? A little to far off the deep end...

They didn't say they wanted to get rid of hydrocodone and oxycodone, only when it is combined with acetaminophen, which is brutal on the liver. I have no use for pain meds personally, and don't like them, but am alarmed with people who abuse them not knowing the damage that large amounts of acetaminophen can do to their liver.

[mysticcherokee]

Well im glad i home detoxed myself from 7 years of hydro 10/650, which I had taken so long i had built complete tolerance to it, but when I tried to detox had w/d symptoms bad minus cravings, cold turkey which is the route i finally went. had bad craving when i tried to taper (several times). I have two debilitating conditions for which there is no cure in sight, yet the pain gets progressively worse. what sucked was I was tring to find a doctor that wasnt w/. the VA medidcal system(they all want to put me on Methadone, it SEEMS), and have gone thru a bit of a learning curve with these ffdrs. and not having worked w/ a private sector dr. on pain issues in a while.Plus I was entering the world of sched II drugs for the first time and have side effects to a lot, more often than not, drugs. This was problematic and i ended up switching drs couple times, with gaps in between, and virtually no relief to speak of. Until my current dr, who really is too far a drive. Anyhoo, I thought I aint ever gonna see a doctor, and i keep takin this dadgum hydro 10/650, which is doin me no good. So so i detoxed, the hard way, without a bridge med to ease the w/ds or anything. Really wasnt as bad as I thought it was going to be. WOULDN'T YOU KNOW IT. I detoxed and THEN found the doctor I am currently seeing, and getting some relief from. Two weeks and one day after I detoxed, I got in to see someone who treated me. Everybody else had like a three four week,if not longer, next available appt. Even as it is, I or my Husband, have to drive over two hrs to get there, but hey I was friggin DESPERATE. So if I'd waited 2 more weeks....but I didn't and i'm glad I still have a liver in good shape. Had to get off those things, but needed something stronger for my incurable condition,fibromyalgia with progressively worsening pain, and chronic fatigue sydrome, which also has pain as a symptom..
The hydro served it purpose for a while, though. Without substitutes, for people like me who are very, very, medicine sensitive, this just cuts down on our choices. Most of the time I was on Hydro 10/650, I still experienced pain to Some degree.
I do not think this is a good idea, cause its just more limiting, but am I surprised, no. I do believe I predicted this last week and no, I dont have an inside scoop. Truly, Mystic

P.S._ Does anybody think that my initial statement about my predicament, and what i chose to do to help myself, was in any way contradictory. I didn't think so.

[Say What]

Nigerian Cardiologist wrote:

<quoted text>They didn't say they wanted to get rid of hydrocodone and oxycodone, only when it is combined with acetaminophen, which is brutal on the liver. I have no use for pain meds personally, and don't like them, but am alarmed with people who abuse them not knowing the damage that large amounts of acetaminophen can do to their liver.

Here's an idea....educate the public about the dangers of Tylenol/acetaminophen by stressing the liver damage it can cause, and the products it is hidden in so that people can keep track of how mch they have taken. Most don't know how very dangerous it is. Instead of the commercials that show how much Tylenol cares for your family, is geared towards using it on infants on up, show a damaged liver and someone dying from it. Get their attention.

[Celebrity Idiots]

Just because celebrities abuse medications we all have to suffer? Most common, law abiding folk don't have easy access to these drugs unless they're prescribed by a physician, usually for a specific purpose. I can see eliminating the combination and prescribing the Tylenol separatly but to take drugs off the market that have helped many people get over pain from surgeries or whatever is crazy. This is way too much of the nanny government for me. It's time for a revolt.

[MissMissy]

what about after Surgery wrote:

How are people to deal post surgery pain without Vicodin & Percocet??? A little to far off the deep end...

Government "experts" may want this to happen, but let's get real folks...they help too many people with pain. I doubt they will ever pass new legislature (sp) that bans these drugs. So for now people, relax!

[Cheryl Rivera RN]

I think the panel's vote was silly and ridiculous and I'm sure that many of my fellow healthcare professionals feel the same way. If the problem is acetominophen then stick with the drug causing the problem. I have counseled many a patient and friends and family members as to the dangers of acetominophen overdose and to no avail. And the more difficult it is for people to obtain the stronger painkillers when needed ,the more likely they are to abuse acetominophen and other so-called "safer" painkillers. I would sooner my husband be able to take one percocet three times a day for his chronic back pain then to take a deadly dose of five -six extra strength acetominophen tabs...and believe me he and many others have reported to me that they have been desperate enough with pain at times and have done just that! My response has always been "Call the doctor and tell him what's going on and he will order something more appropriate for your level of pain-I promise you....You could easily die from taking that much of the"safer" drug...PLEASE don't EVER do that again!!!!!!!!" I've had this same conversation with my patients too many times to count. People even have said that they knew the risks but, the benefit of reduced pain was worth the risk at the time. These panelists; have they ever done actual patient care?

[rierie]

This is to mysticcherokee. I see you talk about fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome. For the majority of patients opiates do not help. I also see you mentioned nothing about Lyrica (first approved FDA drug for treatment of fibromyalgia). You also didn't mention exercise. Since the cause of fibromyalgia is not known treatment generally includes some form of alternative therapy. There are other people in pain (cancer) for which there is no cure also.

[Eliminate TYLENOL]

Tylenol has long been known as a killer. It's a slow killer of livers, always HAS BEEN. When you take vicodin for a surgery, they tell you NO TYLENOL PRODUCTS. In fact if you have a severe enough injury, they give you a Vicodin product WITHOUT or with REDUCED tylenol.

Let's get rid of the tylenol over the counter PERIOD and keep it in other perscription drugs. That way, if a Dr. prescribes it, he has the liability too.

[Absolutely RIGHT]

Cheryl Rivera RN wrote:

I think the panel's vote was silly and ridiculous and I'm sure that many of my fellow healthcare professionals feel the same way. If the problem is acetominophen then stick with the drug causing the problem. I have counseled many a patient and friends and family members as to the dangers of acetominophen overdose and to no avail. And the more difficult it is for people to obtain the stronger painkillers when needed ,the more likely they are to abuse acetominophen and other so-called "safer" painkillers. I would sooner my husband be able to take one percocet three times a day for his chronic back pain then to take a deadly dose of five -six extra strength acetominophen tabs...and believe me he and many others have reported to me that they have been desperate enough with pain at times and have done just that! My response has always been "Call the doctor and tell him what's going on and he will order something more appropriate for your level of pain-I promise you....You could easily die from taking that much of the"safer" drug...PLEASE don't EVER do that again!!!!!!!!" I've had this same conversation with my patients too many times to count. People even have said that they knew the risks but, the benefit of reduced pain was worth the risk at the time. These panelists; have they ever done actual patient care?

You got this dead right!

[BKLYN]

Percocet, Vicodin, Tylenol and what is next, Lets all take a look at "Alcohol. I am sure that it has killed many people, destroys families and also eats up your liver and yet nobody does anything about that. The only requirement to obtain Alcohol is that you have to be 21 years old, this is ridiculous because to get the medications mentioned above they make you jump through hoops to get it and even then you still may not get it and you can get addicted to Alcohol just as bad. I am just so sick and tired of all the (BS).