The painkiller Darvon, which oftentimes is combined with acetimenophine and marketed as Darvocet, has been prescribed for 50 years. But an FDA panel just
voted to pull it from the market permanently. The panel claims that the drug offers weak pain relief, but that it is widely abused.
In a separate analysis, the FDA office that handles painkillers said Darvon is a weak pain reliever. Most studies show that in Darvocet, the widely used combination drug, the Darvon component appears to contribute "little or no" additional pain relief beyond that provided by the acetaminophen component, reviewers said.
Wolfe presented the advisory panel with new data from the government's Drug Abuse Warning Network, which tracks emergency room visits and deaths. It showed that Darvon-related deaths rose to 503 in 2007, from 446 in 2006. In both years, about 20 percent were suicides. The network covers only about one-third of the U.S. population.
Darvon was banned in the UK in 2005. But not everyone agrees that the painkiller should be pulled from the market because just because some people abuse it. They also say that doctors should not have their options limited for prescribing drug to patients who are in pain. As for Darvocet, our totally unscientific and biased opinion is that it didn't work at all when we got our wisdom teeth out years ago. We thought ibuprofen did a better job of pain relief.
The painkiller Darvon, which oftentimes is combined with acetimenophine and marketed as Darvocet, has been prescribed for 50 years. But an FDA panel just
