The Food and Drug Administration has issued a guide for patients to help them understand pain medicines and use them safely.

The guide includes information about over-the-counter (OTC) and prescription pain medicine.  It includes some of the problems that can occur when acetaminophen, NSAIDS, or opiates are not used as directed.  Knowing the active ingredients in a pain reliever is important so that patients won’t use several different medicines with the same ingredient at the same time. Read the rest of this entry »

The Food and Drug Administration is increasing its requirements for safe prescription and use of pain medicines that contain opiates beginning with a meeting in early March with manufacturers.  Additional input is planned through discussions with other government agencies, the addiction and pain treatment communities, and patient advocates.

The intensive new program is designed to reduce risk of misuse or accidental overdoses of powerful pain medicines and will probably put new requirements on physicians who prescribe them, pharmacists who dispense them, and patients who need them.

Manufacturers will be required to develop Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategies (REMS) to ensure that benefits of using the drugs outweigh their risks. Read the rest of this entry »