January 30, 2009

Now They Want My Pain Relief Drugs

If they are not trying to take away my Celebrex, then they are trying to take away pain medications

Call it the cold case file of drug safety. Federal health officials convened a public hearing Friday on whether to ban Darvon, a painkiller first approved in 1957, when there were few alternatives for treating pain except aspirin and powerful narcotics.

Now mainly marketed as Darvocet, which includes a dose of acetaminophen, the drug remains one of the top 25 most commonly prescribed medications. More than 20 million prescriptions were written in 2007.

I use Darvocet as my main pain relief drug. It's nonaddicting and doesn't make me all loopy like Vicodien nor does it knock me completely out (like Vicodien)

But they are saying it doesn't offer much pain relief ...

The consumer group Public Citizen said the FDA should withdraw Darvon from the market because the drug offers relatively weak pain relief and poses an overdose risk, with the potential to be used in suicides.

It was that stupid Public Citizen group that went after my Celebrex too, someone needs to tell them to stay out of my medicine cabinet.

In an analysis prepared for the hearing, the FDA's safety office said it had searched the agency's database of reported drug problems, but the result was "insufficient" to allow reviewers to make a clear-cut recommendation. The safety office found more than 3,000 reports of serious problems. The top three were suicide, drug dependence and overdoses.

The only way to overdose or kill yourself with Darvocet is to take more then prescribed. My Darvocets have yet to jump out of the bottle and force themselves into my mouth, but now I will keep a careful eye on them just in case.

Darvocet for me helps when I have, the more then I want to handle but not of the Vicodien variety, arthritis pain.

Geez, I am tired of worrying about medications I take. Once I am on something that works I hate having to find something else.

UPDATED

Crap, they are going to get it this time too...

Government medical advisers Friday recommended a ban on Darvon, a prescription medicine that's been used to treat pain for more than 50 years but left a trail of problems such as addiction and suicide.

A Food and Drug Administration advisory panel voted 14-12 to recommend withdrawing Darvon after a daylong hearing examining its risks and benefits. The FDA is not required to follow the recommendations of its advisers, but often does so.

Posted by Quality Weenie at January 30, 2009 03:12 PM | TrackBack
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