I am amazed when talk comes up at the legislature or with individual insurance claims about whether chiropractic should be paid under the no fault act. Usually it involves discussions about limiting the coverage or adding treatment parameters. There is no real talk about how to deal with the person’s pain if you take away their chiropractic treatment, which works for so many.
One of the options has to be pain killers. Has there been a single one that hasn’t been looked at for significant damage to organs or causes for potential death? Let’s see what’s out there:
An advisory panel of the FDA voted to recommend a ban on Percocet and Vicodin. The panel noted that patients who take Percocet and Vicodin for long periods often need higher and higher doses to achieve the same effect. More than 400 people die and 42,000 are hospitalized every year in the United States from overdoses.
The FDA advisory panel, made up of scientists, doctors and consumer representatives, voted 21 to 6 in favor of lowering the maximum daily dose of nonprescription acetaminophen for adults, which is currently set at 4,000 mg; the panel did not specify a new maximum dosage. They also voted 24 to 13 to reduce the maximum single adult daily dose to 650 mg from the current maximum of 1,000 mg, or the equivalent of two tablets of Extra Strength Tylenol. Finally, the members recommended 26 to 11 that the 1,000-mg over-the-counter dose be switched to a prescription-only status.
In a separate vote, the panel recommended 36 to 1 that if acetaminophen-containing prescription drugs continue to be sold they be sold with a black-box warning.
Far more people are harmed by regular use of aspirin and ibuprofen (Nsaids). 100,000 Americans are hospitalized each year with complications associated with Nsaids and 15,000 to 20,000 die from ulcers and internal bleeding linked to their use.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has called for a black box warning for Darvon, Darvocet and other painkillers containing the drug propoxyphene because of overdose risks.
You look at this list and it makes you wonder why the discussion isn’t about how do we use more alternative medicines? Why are painkillers given out like candy? Now, I represented enough people with serious pain, so I know that many of the concerns that the loss of these drugs may cause. But, despite that it seems like anything that is done to limit their use is for the better.
