Comments on: FDA’s Latest Deadly Drug: Codeine

By: Tarl

Tarl — Fri, 17 Aug 2012 06:48:35 +0000

Eventually, you’ll be able to identify that a box contains a pharmaceutical by the common black-box warning on it:

“Warning: This is a drug. It might kill you.”

By: DensityDuck

DensityDuck — Thu, 16 Aug 2012 23:38:05 +0000

The point is to gradually eliminate “grandfathered” medications (and OTC medications in general). After all, if it’s medicine, then the FDA ought to be able to point to documentation showing it’s been tested, right?

By: defendUSA

defendUSA — Thu, 16 Aug 2012 17:19:05 +0000

WC-
This is a codeine-related question. Why, if the effect of the medication is to subdue pain or cough if in a syrup, does it make some people suffer insomnia? When my son was 2 they gave us cough syrup with codeine. He was awake at 0200 and ready to play. I took some tylenol with codeine for a surgery…I could not sleep, either.
Same with a tramadol/tyelnol pain med. Just curious…
More gov’t intrusion isn’t what we need…

By: throckmorton

throckmorton — Thu, 16 Aug 2012 16:23:17 +0000

In our Peds ED we see two seperate things, caring parents who dont understand that there will be pain after surgery and therefore thing a little bit extra of the pain meds wont hurt, and parents who steal the kids pain medication and take it themself. I cant tell you how many times kids come to the ED with “Pain medication not working” only to find none in their system.

By: Matt

Matt — Thu, 16 Aug 2012 13:14:24 +0000

WC,

I’m disappointed to see your weak move to shut comments off in the Dwyer post. Obviously it’s your site and you can do what you want but to close it right after you post snarky remarks about his integrity is beneath you.

By: Gwen

Gwen — Thu, 16 Aug 2012 10:06:05 +0000

How much does CYP2D6 genotyping cost? In other countries you can walk up to the pharmacy counter and just ask for paracetamol with codeine and the pharmacist will ask you if you have ever had the medication before. If you say yes, they will just sell it to you! No black box warning, nothing. The FDA is silly. This is in the realm of, “Won’t someone think of the chldren!” meme. It has become a joke. We are becoming a joke in the eyes of the world. Will we, as Americans, be forcing our children to wear helmets as they go through childhood too?

By: Ted

Ted — Thu, 16 Aug 2012 08:21:52 +0000

Given the codeine’s relatively poor analgesia compared to other meds (AAEM has been touting ibuprofen over APAP/codeine combinations, particularly in pediatrics, for years) I’m not too upset about this outcome.

You make an excellent point that the “science” involved is substandard at best.