Co-Proxamol
Posted on 2005-02-17
My GP phoned me today with the following news and asked me to make an appointment to see her as soon as possible:
Painkiller linked with suicide to be withdrawn from UK: Coproxamol will be phased out of use in the United Kingdom over the next two years after advice from the Committee on Safety of Medicines. Coproxamol is currently linked to about 400 deaths each year, and about a fifth of those are accidental, sometimes involving alcohol. The prescription only medicine will be phased out over the next 18 months to allow GP's time to prescribe alternatives for their patients.
I'm just one of the 1.7 million people in the UK currently prescribed Coproxamol legitimately to control pain and who does not abuse its use in any way, shape or form. As a prescription only drug, surely monitoring should be the combined responsibility of the GP and the patient??? Besides, taking Coproxamol off the market isn't going to stop accidental overdoses or intentional suicides - people will just turn to alternative painkillers instead, whether it be to legitimately control pain or intentionally use the drug to kill themselves.
For example, paracetamol is available over-the-counter without any sort of monitoring whatsoever. Will the Committee on Safety of Medicines now say that this has to become a prescription only drug in order to prevent suicides and accidental deaths??? No, of course not. So the 1.7 million of us who aren't abusing their medication are going to suffer at the hands of a few individuals who did.
Angry just doesn't cover how I'm feeling right now.
Added Later
For the record, for those people who know I'm in therapy for Prescription Drug Addiction, this wasn't because I abused my medication.
I was prescribed sleeping tablets, again legitimately, by my doctor to help with my M.E./CFS. At that time nobody realised that people could become dependant this particular drug. After years of my taking the sleeping tablets, and after various medical studies, it was discovered that people could indeed become addicted, but by then it was too late for me - I was already hooked.
As soon as the medical evidence was released, on the advice of my doctors I stopped taking the drug, and yes, I do suffer from withdrawl symptoms, but ever since then I have been on a drug withdrawl scheme and am in therapy, not just to help me cope with 'being an addict' but also the numerous other 'issues' I have.
There's a very big difference between becoming unwillingly addicted to a drug, and abusing a drug.