Following reports that some opioid addicts are taking potentially lethal doses of over-the-counter anti-diarrhea medication, the Food and Drug Administration has issued a warning about the dangers of abuse and misuse of these seemingly innocuous products. [More]
opioid painkillers
In Denial About America’s Opioid Painkiller Problem? This Map Might Change Your Mind
By 5.26.16
If you think the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is being alarmist by urging primary care physicians to stop prescribing so many opioid painkillers, or that the fact that 10% of doctors are writing more than 50% of the prescriptions for opioids is not a concrete indicator of a problem, then perhaps this map of overdose deaths in the U.S. will help to drive the point home. [More]
Some Opioid Addicts Are Risking Their Lives By Taking Large Amounts Of Imodium
By 5.12.16
The use of opioid painkillers can result in constipation, so the last drug you might expect to see an opioid addict consume is the over-the-counter anti-diarrhea medication Imodium. What you might not know is that loperamide, the active ingredient in Imodium and its store-brand knock-offs, is itself an opioid — one that must be taken in very high, potentially lethal, doses to achieve any noticeable effects, but one to which a growing number of addicts are turning. [More]
New Warning Labels Coming To Opioid Painkillers
By 3.22.16
A week after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention called on physicians to stop prescribing opioid painkillers when less-problematic therapeutic treatments will do the trick, another federal agency is joining in the effort to alert consumers to the potential risks of using these frequently prescribed medications. [More]
CDC Urges Primary Care Physicians To Stop Over-Prescribing Painkillers
By 3.16.16
Physicians in the U.S. write more than 250 million prescriptions a year for opioid painkillers — and that’s not including all the painkiller prescriptions written for patients with cancer or acute/chronic pain. That’s enough for every adult in the U.S. to have their own bottle of pills. Meanwhile, every day more than 40 Americans die after overdosing on opioids. That’s why the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is urging primary care physicians — who prescribe about half of all opioids — to rethink how generous they are with their prescriptions. [More]
FDA Suggests Tightening Access To Painkillers Like Vicodin
By 10.25.13
Yesterday the U.S. Food and Drug Administration recommended that the rules regarding drugs with hydrocodone, which is often in painkillers like vicodin, be a lot tighter. It suggests that the drug be reclassified along the level of other opioid painkillers like oxycodone and morphine. [More]
