Thursday, July 2, 2009

No more Vicodin?

A federal advisory panel voted Tuesday to recommend a ban on Vicodin and Percocet. Both painkillers contain acetaminophen, a drug that when taken in very large doses or with alcohol can damage the liver. I was initially shocked by the news -- Vicodin helped me a lot early on with my pain -- but as I thought about it more, it made more sense. After all, one can just take the narcotics in either drug (oxycodone in percocet, hydrocodone in vicodin) on their own, adding or not adding doses of acetaminophen as your doctor advises. At any rate, the announcement is a good reminder of how dangerous Tylenol can be, especially if you still drink a little.

The NYT coverage is here.

1 comment:

Kathy said...

And the recommendation was to reduce the amount of acetominophen in each pill. BRILLIANT! Watch folks just pop more pills to get their desired effect. Being I'm anti "big government" and don't want too much interference into my life, I can think of many more important things for them to deal with than how many Tylenol I take for my headache or does our government think we are all just too stupid to think for ourselves and read a label?