Home deaths from drug errors soar

[Stuart G]

Source: CNN, AP

Home deaths from drug errors soar


http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/07/28/fatal.drug.errors.ap/index.html

CHICAGO, Illinois (AP) -- Deaths from medication mistakes at home, such as actor Heath Ledger's accidental overdose, rose dramatically during the past two decades, an analysis of U.S. death certificates finds.

Prescription drug abuse plays a role in the rise in fatalities, but it's unclear how much, researchers said.

The authors blame soaring home use of prescription painkillers and other potent drugs, which 25 years ago were given mainly inside hospitals.

"The amount of medical supervision is going down and the amount of responsibility put on the patient's shoulders is going up," said lead author David P. Phillips of the University of California, San Diego.
The findings, based on nearly 50 million U.S. death certificates, are published in Monday's Archives of Internal Medicine. Of those, more than 224,000 involved fatal medication errors, including overdoses and mixing prescription drugs with alcohol or street drugs

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/07/28/fatal.drug.errors.ap/index.html

---

Tens of thousands have died like actor Heath Ledger. Combining medicines thought to be safe. I hate to say it, but doctors are the biggest drug dealers in this country..Not nice but true.

[hedgehog]

1. I wonder how many have died from mixing acetaminophen and alcohol.

It could be done as simply as taking a cold remedy and then mixing up a hot toddy like grandma used to make.

[Warpy]

2. Well, you'd have to take the cold remedy plus Tylenol for the body aches

wash it down with something like Nyquil or a cough medicine with Tylenol, and then drink several hot toddies until you passed out--and you'd have to do it for a few weeks, but yes.

Burning out your liver with Tylenol and booze is not a particularly efficient way to kill yourself, but it will certainly make you very sick for a very long time.

What's happening is that people are taking narcotic pain relievers with anti anxiety medication and getting poor relief of both and drinking themselves to sleep. It's the alcohol potentiating everything that causes the respiratory depression that leads to death.

The problem isn't that people are able to get powerful pain medications outside of a hospital. It's that they expect to be totally pain free and drink when they're not.

[Stuart G]

3. Yes, a woman I know died that way.

..Pretty much an alcoholic, then took some stuff to calm herself down. She was young, mother of 2. They said it was a heart attack, but that was a cover up.

[Psephos]

4. Good observations n/t

[JeanGrey]

14. Actually people have gone into liver failure mixing tylenol and

booze a LOT quicker than that. Actually, one time. I know because I had a liver transplant and met these people myself. One guy had taken what amounted to five or six for a headache after having had a couple glasses of wine and woke up in liver failure. Happens all the time.

[Warpy]

16. Yeah, five or six will start the process

but my guess is that he had more than a glass of wine and had had that amount daily.

One thing every nurse learns to do is listen to what a person says his or her daily alcohol intake is and triple it.

Most of the time, it turns out to be an underestimate.

One small Tylenol overdose will raise those liver enzymes and cause some inflammation and maybe even discomfort. It takes quite a few occasions or a massive overdose to burn the liver out completely.

[JeanGrey]

20. I'm sorry but I know what I'm talking about. It can happen that

easily. I also met a guy while waiting for transplant that was 54 and had Hepititis B. Got in VIETNAM years earlier and never even knew it. He woke up one morning yellow overnight and I do mean overnight. (he was in failure).

Be very very careful with tylenol, period or you might be sorry.

[Truth4Justice]

10. You cant go around telling people that tylenol and booze can damage major organs and kill people....

I mean what will the liver transplant doctors do for a living? What about the stocks in tylenol dropping if they found out how toxic long-term tylenol use is even without alcohol involvement? Can't anyone keep a secret anymore? :sarcasm:

[dysfunctional press]

21. i have no use for tylenol...i even ask for vicoprofen instead of vicodin when i get a prescription.

dr. and dentist both.
i have to take ibuprofen regularly anyway, so it only makes sense.
but most people don't even know that vicoprofen even exists.
the spell-checker on du doesn't even recognize it.

[shadowknows69]

5. WTF, oh this doesn't make me feel well

I'm on some heavy stuff myself, a similar mixture to Mr. Ledger's (knock wood). Why can't we even trust the people that are supposed to heal us anymore?

[Skittles]

6. perhaps it would help

if doctors took more time to find out what is REALLY bothering people instead of coming up with a pill that supposedly fixes every complaint

[mopinko]

7. jesus people, lay off.

easy for healthy people to sit around and carp about doctors handing out too many pills. it takes a dozen pills a day between drugs and supplements to keep me functioning and keep pain to tolerable levels. i wouldn't trade it for all the herbal tea on the planet. it has given me back my life. and believe me, it was a lot more than a short visit and a quick script.
ya don't know what you are talking about.
i hate these threads.

[jayfish]

8. I Can Think Of A Few Things You Could Trade Them...

for. They're all natural and they aren't herbal tea.

:smoke:

Jay

[mopinko]

9. no, that is not a panacea, either.

believe me, i know. not even close.

[Stuart G]

11. I am sorry that this thread bothers some ...but

I will say this. I have been there. I was addicted to these kinds of drugs. Not any more.
.. It is a very long story, but not for here.
And it was very hard to get off of them. But I did.
. But I put this thread up because over use of these drugs is very dangerous.
We need to be especially careful when we use them.
And believe me, I do know what I am talking about.

[Mojorabbit]

12. Amen

I know exactly what you mean.

[dysfunctional press]

25. if you hate these threads- why do you click on them...?

:shrug:

is someone holding a gun to your head or something?

[Stuart G]

13. I honestly believe that there is a misconception about many prescription drugs.

I think I thought because a doctor prescribed them, they were not very strong or powerful.
I was wrong. Some of these are just as addictive and strong as so called "illegal" drugs.

The same is true of over the counter meds. Anyone who thinks that aspirin is not strong is just not informed. Aspirin is not prescription medicine because it has been out there for so long. And it is very powerful.

One prescription medicine that I was on, left the body, at a rate that was 10 times slower than booze. That medicine had a half life of 20 hours and booze has a half life of 2 hours. As stated before, I wish that people were very cautious with these medicines.

[mopinko]

17. that is not what you stated before.

you threw out the usual broad brush "doctors are bad, medicines are bad" that has way to many people not seeking treatments that could improve their lives. i would love to see a study that does the flip side of this- how many people's lives are being ruined by treatable illnesses and pain, because they are afraid of the available treatments?

[Stuart G]

19. This is what I said before:

"but doctors are the biggest drug dealers in this country..Not nice but true."........

And I believe that is still the truth.
.. Nevertheless, you are correct. Many doctors do an excellent job in monitoring their patients, prescribing medicines, and making sure that patients are aware of bad combinations.

Further, you are also correct in stating that many people need their medicines and with them they are doing excellent.
..--far better than they would do without medicine. And your are
...also correct in saying that....
...."many people not seeking treatments that could improve their lives" There a lot to be said about this issue that the public thinks all doctors are..as you sad.., "doctors are bad, medicines are bad." (I did not say that)

I guess we are discussing different ideas. Of course all doctors are not bad, and medicines, are well, medicines..We live in a kinda culture that seems to glorify some kinds of "pills." I used to. But many doctors further this culture through over prescribing and not being totally honest with side effects and potential addictions.
.. But there are doctors who do not do this. I did not mean to imply that all did.

[dysfunctional press]

24. they don't call oxycontin "hillbilly heroin" for nothing...

when i first started taking it years ago, i found out rater quickly that chewing them was the way to go.
i knew another person with my condition who would grind up, cook his oxycontin, and inject it...i never had the desire myself.

[undeterred]

15. This is what pharmacists are for - and there is no charge for questions.

Its much easier to walk into a drugstore and ask the pharmacist a question than it is to get ahold of a doctor.

[Lance_Boyle]

18. if the pill bottle says "do not take with alcohol," and someone

takes the pills with alcohol, who is to blame? The doctor? The pharmacist? Certainly it couldn't be the moron who took the pills with alcohol...

The *real* crying shame here is that no prescription medicines come with a "DO NOT TAKE WITH METH" warning label. I think we should start a campaign to make that mandatory.

[dysfunctional press]

23. when it says "alcohol may intensify this effect" i always wonder if it's a warning or a suggestion?

:evilgrin:

[dysfunctional press]

22. there are websites that can warn you about possible drug interactions...

if you list all of your meds.

i take LOTS of narcotic pain meds- in the medicine cabinet i have bottles of methadone, vicoprofen, oxycontin, also flexeril, ambien, lunesta, and valium. plus wellbutrin and prednisone. those are just the prescrption meds.

i also smoke pot, but i haven't had any alcohol in almost 10 years...since i started the narcotics.

[Stuart G]

26. About pain reduction meds..

We need them. It is when people use them when they are not indicated, and when people mix them with tension reducing meds and some people add booze that there is lots of trouble. They do seem harmless enough. Hell, I did it for a while. I stopped because I {b] had to

I don't know what to say. This problem will not go away, it will only get worse. It will be talked about for a while, then dropped till the next well known person admits to abuse, or is killed accidentally. It is always like that. Sad.. The tens of thousands of people who die or hospitalized..well that is that person's problem, not mine.

[sakabatou]

27. I had a drug error once when I was younger

Got a pill that was a bit larger than my regular ones. Luckily my mom got me to the hospital really fast.