Vicodin
An FDA Advisory committee, which is an outside group providing information to the FDA, recently issued a recommendation banning the use of two common prescription pain killers: Vicodin and Percocet. This was a 20-17 decision by the panel and is now in front of the FDA, which has historically approved such recommendations. What’s the reason you may ask. Well, it has to do with the amount of acetaminophen in the pills. Acetaminophen is garden variety Tylenol. Tylenol has been implicated in multiple liver failure cases secondary to overdoses (“O.D. ing”). The recommended maximum amount of Tylenol is 4 grams daily. That comes out to 12 tablets at the 325 mg per tablet dose, and 8 tablets at the 500 mg per tablet dose.
The panel felt that a tighter control over acetaminophen was required. So, they recommended removing the 500 mg per tablet dose of Tylenol, and banning Vicodin and Percocet. The recommendation has nothing to do with the narcotics present in Vicodin and Percocet, just the acetaminophen.
Is this a good decision? I’m not so sure. I don’t think that this recommendation will actually decrease the number of overdoses (“O.D. ing”). People who want to harm themselves will still take a large amount of Tylenol and still have liver failure. Patients who take Vicodin and Percocet for pain are not going to put themselves at risk of liver failure if they follow the directions on the label. Similarly, patients who follow the directions on the Tylenol bottle will also not put themselves at risk for liver failure. All this ban is going to accomplish is raise a lot of questions from worried patients, make it harder for them to find prescription pain medication that works, and make this an all around pain without any real benefit. That’s my 2c!
