Last week, an FDA panel recommended that new restrictions be put on medications containing acetaminophen, a pain-reliever found in Tylenol and Nyquil, as well as the prescription drugs Percocet and Vicodin.  The reasoning given for these suggestions is that acetaminophen is so prevalent that it is easy to unknowingly abuse it.  For example, if several doses of Tylenol are taken over the course of the day, along with Nyquil, and then perhaps Percocet on top of that, the recommended daily dose has been exceeded several times over.

Firstly, a New York Times article reports that only 400 deaths resulting from acetaminophen overdose/poisoning occur each year, with an additional 42,000 hospitalized for acetaminophen poisoning yearly.  I’d argue, however, that the deaths and hospitalizations are largely due to inattentive medication, and not problems inherent in dosing.

Obviously, taking medication necessitates caution, and it’s prudent to read medicine labels before taking the drug.  One way to solve this problem without lowering dosage and making Extra Strength Tylenol over the counter–two solutions recommended by the FDA–would be through more visible labels.  For example, a “This product contains acetaminophen, please cross reference with other drugs you might be taking” label might be effective enough in directing consumers to make sure they’re not exceeding the recommended daily intake.

Furthermore, Vicodin and Percocet are already prescription-only drugs, and are usually reserved for patients recovering from surgeries.  So FDA must think (or know) that people are really stupid/lazy if they would suggest lowering the dosage and restricting access to certain products before implementing a solution that might add on 30 seconds of reading.

Or maybe the FDA is right–maybe the easiest way to solve this problem is by assuming everyone’s too dumb to read a label and just lowering doses.

But if they’re so concerned about death/hospitalization as a result of easy-access pain killers, wouldn’t the FDA also want to restrict aspirin and ibuprofen as well?  The aforementioned New York Times article mentions that more deaths and hospitalizations result from medications containing aspirin and ibuprofen than acetaminophen.

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