Posted on 12/19/2006 8:37:02 PM PST by DaveLoneRanger
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Federal health officials on Tuesday proposed sterner warning labels for acetaminophen, aspirin and ibuprofen, again cautioning millions of Americans who take the nonprescription pain relievers regularly of potentially serious side effects.
The over-the-counter drugs remain safe and effective when used as directed, the Food and Drug Administration said. However, overdoses of acetaminophen can cause serious liver damage, even death, the FDA said.
For aspirin, ibuprofen and other nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, there is a risk of gastrointestinal bleeding and kidney injury even when patients take the correct dose. The drugs are linked to thousands of deaths a year. The FDA said the risk is rare when compared with the number of patients who take the drugs.
The drugs are found in hundreds of products sold to treat pain, headache and fever. Health officials worry that the wide availability of those combination products allows patients to unwittingly overdose.
The FDA has updated the labels on the drugs multiple times in the past to warn patients of their risks. In 2004, some of the warnings contained in the new proposal were included in pharmacy brochures and public service ads -- a move that some critics said at the time didn't go far enough.
The latest proposed changes largely would beef up and highlight those warnings on the labels of the drugs. They also would required the more prominent disclosure, using fluorescent or bold-faced type, the presence of the drugs among a medication's ingredients.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Now if the FDA would put full disclosure on scripts....we might be in business....LOL!
So, what's the problem? Anything that is taken in overdose quantities is going to have side effects. Geeeze. Does the government hire the ignorant or does it believe we are all ignorant?
I hope you're being sarcastic. You ever read a prescription's warning list?
Both of course.
On the newer medicines, say those that have come out in the last 5-10 years, they make it sound like the "cure" is worse than the disease... and sometimes it is.
www.drugdigest.org
I am not actually and yes, I have read them. But there are many scripts that do not list certain warnings that were discovered later......only what may have been found in the trial stages and some side effects that were hidden in the initial reporting.
They do warn of stomach bleeding from most of these products but how many people believe it? I didn't, but do now!
Treating acetominophen overdose is a pain. It is usually women who really are after attention usually from a boyfriend who broke up with them or who wants to break up with them. They have to be admitted for about 4 days and have to drink a substance that smells like rotten eggs. If they will not drink it they get a painful NG tube placed which they beg to have taken our or they pull it out then drink the stuff. They ususally have borderline personality disorders and I advise any man to run in the opposite direction ASAP and do not look back or your life will be like this forever. Sorry but that is the majority of cases. Do these women realize they could kill themselves with liver failure. NO. And putting a label on the bottle will not change that one bit. They do not have the sense to read a label. But it will protect the innocent company. Despite the dosage is already on the bottle and it tells you to take no more that that recommended.
Wow! 200,000 people go to the hospital, and 16,000 die from these meds? Better be good liberals and ban them now!
We are going to DIE!!!
Than - then.
Yes, while we are at it, let's ban automobiles. Thousands die in automobile accidents and the way you stop automobile accidents is ban them. But first, let's put stickers on the cars that state the side effects of speeding and reckless driving.
Where did individual responsibility ever disappear to? I'll bet this will set someone up with a good response!
I believe most people are sitting on it.
Heh...try getting that over the counter these days...they used cocaine as a cure-all, too. How did those Victorians stay so uptight when they were stoned all the time?
So in other words, people like this abused the drug because of behavioral issues, in which case the behavior would be there whether it was aspirin or something else?
No kidding!
Both, yes, but more of the latter. They play on people's lack of knowledge both in our healthcare and our pets healthcare.
Good grief, they have to protect us from everything these days, from taking Vitamins to over the counter pain meds to kids playing on the swings at school. Where will it ever end!!!!!
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