Archives for October 2013

In a move designed to combat drug abuse but likely to put further burdens on pain patients, the US Food and Drug Administration yesterday announced that it is recommending tighter controls over opioid pain relievers such as Vicodin and Lortab that contain hydrocodone.

Pain relievers are in the news again — and the news isn’t great.

Acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol, is the focus of a series of scary investigative articles by ProPublica, the online new organization. The bottom line of the series: about 150 people per year die from accidentally taking too much acetaminophen, and even though the line between a therapeutic dose and a dangerous dose is slim, the FDA (and the drug companies that sell the products) have done little to warn consumers.