Jun 30, 2009 4:22 pm US/Eastern
FDA Panel Recommends Lower Acetaminophen Doses
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
A Food and Drug Administration advisory panel made recommendations on Tuesday that drug companies should lower the dose of acetaminophen in their products.
Every year, accidental overdose of the popular medication, which is best known in Tylenol, sends patients to the emergency room and in some cases into liver failure.
Dr. Theodore Bania at St. Luke's Roosevelt Hospital says patients can accidently damage their liver by taking too much acetaminophen.
"We see patients all the time with Tylenol toxicity," Bania tells CBS 2.
For example, someone who's sick may take Tylenol for a headache and then take cold medicine, not realizing it also contains acetaminophen.
"And then already you're overdosing or taking too much Tylenol," Bania says.
For chronic pain sufferers, prescription pain killers like Vicodin and Percocet may soon be a thing of the past. The expert panel recommended they be pulled off the market as well.
The drugs combine acetaminophen with stronger narcotic but it's the acetaminophen that often causes problems.
Acetaminophen overdose is the leading cause of liver failure in the U.S. sending some 56,000 Americans to the emergency room every year.
The FDA panel recommends that companies reduce the maximum daily dose to less than 4 grams, the equivalent of eight Extra Strength Tylenol. They also want to reduce the maximum single dose to 650 milligrams.
But there is an easy way to avoid overdose, Cleveland Clinic's Dr. Michael Benninger says.
"Following the label, reading the label," Benninger tells CBS 2. "Many, many patients don't really read the label."
The FDA is also considering changing the labels but will make that decision on a later date.
When it comes to removing the prescription drugs from the market, the experts cited the fact that 60 percent of acetaminophen-related deaths were the result of prescription drugs, not over-the-counter products.
(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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