FDA To Ban Painkiller Linked To Suicides - Darvocet

[The Straight Story]

FDA To Ban Painkiller Linked To Suicides

Washington, D.C. (AHN) - An advisory panel of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Friday recommended banning a pain-relieving drug linked to deaths, including suicides, and for being addictive.

The FDA advisory committee's recommendation of withdrawing Darvon or Darvocet, which is also known by its generic name propoxyphene, came 30 years after its ban was first sought by the consumers group Public Citizen.

The drug made by Eli Lilly and marketed by Xanodyne Pharmaceuticals and Qualitest/Vintage Pharmaceuticals, was approved in 1957. It was banned in the U.K. in 2005.

Public Citizen first petitioned FDA to ban the painkiller in 1978 citing its relatively weak pain relief and for posing overdose risk, with the potential to be used in suicides.

During the hearing on Darvon Friday, Dr. Sidney Wolfe, a drug safety expert with Public Citizen, presented the FDA panel new data from the government's Drug Abuse Warning Network, which tracks emergency room visits and deaths. The data showed that deaths linked to Darvon use increased to 503 in 2007 from 446 in 2006. In 20 percent of the deaths, the drug was used for suicides.

http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7013900819

[Kittycat]

1. Good. Gives me migraines afterwards anyway.

[madrchsod]

2. a crazy friend of mine used to smoke darvocet in the 60`s

ya he was crazy......

[ProgressiveProfessor]

3. Ban Darvon? Its almost as old as I am...

However, if better is readily available in generic form, why not? There may also be some limited situations where it is the best or only choice.

[Dogmudgeon]

4. One of the few pain meds I can take

I'm a chronic pain patient. There are very few pain meds I can take without side effects; propoxyphene is one of them.

When that is gone, its pretty much down to oxycodone, which is far more addictive.

You want to talk about suicide then?

The push for this appears to be coming from Sidney Wolfe of "Public" Citizen -- one of Ralph Nader's commissars and a drug warrior in his own right.

Of course, the drug CAN'T be relieving my pain -- Dr. Wolfe says so! Maybe Ralph will let me use marijuana instead.

:eyes:

--d!

[blm]

8. I'll give up my Darvocet and they can replace them with Quaaludes.

Damn, I miss those good old ludes.

[madokie]

14. Hell even after all these years my favorite number is still 714

[blm]

16. Yep - when I see a digital clock that reads 7:14 I can't help but sigh.....

.

[mithnanthy]

17. me too......

sigh..........

[madokie]

20. You'd be surprised at how often I see that number too

it kinda jumps out at me.

[Dogmudgeon]

19. I wish it was a matter of pleasure

It isn't -- propoxyphene is just a pain-killer for me.

Early on, I could detect a minor buzz, but it's never been anything like a substantial high. When I take them, the pain is reduced to the point where I can function. When I don't, the pain comes back in full.

Propoxyphene is also used to wean opiate addicts off their junk. It blocks the withdrawal reaction with a minimum of euphoria.

Sid Wolfe has had the Darvon bug up his ass for 30 years. It seems to be a personal issue with him. So, because he's got a crusade, several million patients are probably going to be left in the lurch for pain suppression. Ultram will probably be the drug they are given to replace propoxyphene -- addictive, extremely expensive, nausea-producing Ultram.

And after several million people come to depend on Ultram, Dr. Wolfe will decide that Ultram must be forbidden, too.

Poor patients, most of them, will "do without" -- that is, they'll drink more, and take more street drugs.

Some "public citizen"!

--p!

[blm]

23. Mine is for pain, too - as a mom for 9yrs there is no room for pleasure medications.

I had back surgery last summer and various complications since. I just wouldn't have minded so much if I had access to meds like ludes. ;)

[blaze]

21. Dang

I really hope that you don't lose you propoxyphene!

I'm 54 and have led a pain free life. I am incredibly thankful for that. I don't know why pain management has always been high on the radar for me... but it has always horrified me that people who live in pain have had to defend their need for pain killers. I have read over and over again that doctors are poorly educated on pain management and that has never made sense to me.

I hope some common sense intercedes here.

[Brazenly Liberal]

5. Ohmigawd, I have Darvocet in my bag right now!

I had thoracic surgery - agonizingly painful recovery because they pry your ribs apart to get in there. The doc had me on Vicodin until I got nervous about it and asked to be switched to something less addictive. I must say the Darvocet worked beautifully, making it possible for me to live a much more nearly normal life. I haven't taken any in some time, but the bottle is still there in the bottom of my bag.

EGAD!! I'm pitching the rest of them down the toilet tonight!

[Mnemosyne]

10. Please take them to a pharmacy for disposal. Water contamination.

:hi:

[Brazenly Liberal]

11. Of course! You're absolutely right.

I hadn't thought that through.

Thanks for the reminder! :fistbump:

[Mnemosyne]

22. I brazenly emptied friend's med chests of outdated antibiotics

up until 1990, then had an epiphany of the harm I did flushing them. It broke my heart for a bit. :cry:

Well, most do try to live and learn, continuously, only the repugnicraps proudly brag of remaining ignorant. :shrug:

Very welcome, Brazen! :toast::smoke:

[Horse with no Name]

6. Hydrocodone is ONE HUNDRED TIMES WORSE as far as addiction

and I have seen that first hand.
Maybe Darvocet is better for committing suicide--but there are worse things than killing yourself.
The probable reason for the increase in the Darvocet use is more than likely the physicians NOT giving out Hydrocodone like candy anymore.
One OB-GYN I work with put it best.."I never have patients ask me for Darvocet. They beg me for Vicodin"...which is what prompted him to change his prescription habits.

[ProdigalJunkMail]

7. did anyone consider that the suicides might have been

BECAUSE of the chronic pain? Just a thought...

sP

[BlooInBloo]

13. Nope, only you have. Doctors, statisticians, and all the rest are fucking idiots...

YOU are the one, the only, TRUE GENIUS.

[ProdigalJunkMail]

18. yeah...that was well documented in the article

and mentioned by so many others here...

still the sarcastic ass, i see...glad you had so much to contribute outside of your surliness.


sP

[tammywammy]

9. I hope this doesn't happen

I take darvocet for my back problems. I don't abuse it, and don't need it constantly either. It has helped me for years.

[mtnester]

12. That stuff is on the red wristband for me

I react with seizure like activity with darvon, darvocet and codeine.

And VIOLENT illness. I would rather hit my head with a hammer than take it.

There are very few painkillers I can take, and fortunately (knock wood) I have a pretty high tolerance and do not usually have a need......that said, when I had some surgery 2 years ago, they put a cocktail in my IV in recovery that nearly blew my head of, it was that good. Phenergan (I told that asshat anesthesiologist I would puke, I got to dress his smug ass DOWN later in the day..Mr. Smiles turned on his heel and left the room, it was THAT good of a smackdown) and fentanyl...I went from puking misery to a "what the heck was THAT?" to hours of sloppy sleeping.

The next day I asked the hospital staff to let me feel my pain so I can tell THEM what I need....because they kept giving me morphine and I was not really sure I needed it. Once I felt the pain, I told them Ibuprofen would be fine...and it was.

BTW - when I was discharging, they came in to deliver a prescription for pain meds for home. I asked what they were sending me home with (assumed it would be some 600 mg Ibuprofen for a few days)...EGAD, they handed me a script for Tylenol3. I held my wristband up...the RED one, which had codeine listed on it...sigh

[davsand]

15. Oh man, years ago I had a script for Darvon. Made me pretty weird after a few days.

WAY back when I was in college I had some sort of infection in the lining of my lung and it felt like I had broken a rib or something. I went to the Doc and he gave me a script for an antibiotic along with a script for the Darvon for pain.

After about three days on the Darvon I was starting to hallucinate and get just a bit TOO weird for anybody to deal with. I called the doc and talked to him about it and he said he didn't want to give me a script for any kind of codeine because it could "suppress respiration" and he didn't want to give me anything too much stronger. He gave me something else that ended up getting recalled about a year later...

:wtf:


Laura

[PCIntern]

24. When I was a dental student, the pharmacology

prof told us that there were studies at that time (mid-70's) that placebo worked better for pain-reduction than Darvon/Darvocet and that there were many better meds including Tylenol or aspirin.

Interestingly, I suggest that my patients take 2 Advil and 1 regular Tylenol for moderate pain. It works better than Tylenol #3 (Codeine).