Laudanum of opium tincture prevails today only because opium tincture was sold prior to the Federal Food, Drug & Cosmetic Act of 1938. Its "grandfathered" status protects opium tincture from being required to undergo strict FDA drug reviews and subsequent approval processes. However, the FDA closely monitors the labeling of opium tincture. Bottles of opium tincture are required by the FDA to bear a bright red "POISON" label given the potency of the drug and the potential for overdose (see discussion about confusion with Paregoric below). Despite opium tincture being an "unapproved drug" as discussed above, a search of FDA's website
Desensitization (medicine) Desensitization (medicine) In medicine, desensitization is a method to reduce or eliminate an organism's negative reaction to a substance or stimulus. In pharmacology, "drug desensitization" is equivalent to drug tolerance, though the latter term refers to the more general concept of subjects' reactions (positive or negative) to a drug reducing following its repeated use. For example, if a person with diabetes mellitus has a bad allergic reaction to taking a full dose of beef insulin, the person is given a very small amount of the insulin at first, so small that the person has no adverse reaction or very limited