In light of the headlines in recent months involving the nationwide epidemic of prescription painkiller abuse and addiction, you might think that every possible effort is being made to crack down on this major public health problem in order to save lives from the damage caused by addiction and overdose. You would be wrong! Officials at the highest levels, the ones you would expect to be the most concerned about stemming the tide of painkiller abuse, have recently given approval to a new type of painkiller that is even more powerful, and therefore more addictive and dangerous, than what is already on the market.
The new drug is hydrocodone bitartrate, and it is being marketed under the name Zohydro. How much more powerful is Zohydro? It has been reported as being as much as 10 times more potent than OxyContin and between 5 and 10 times stronger than Vicodin. This drug is so powerful, indeed, that even the manufacturer, Zogenix, Inc., has acknowledged that taking as few as two pills, or one pill in the case of a child, could easily result in an overdose.
Why would the FDA even consider approving a new painkiller that could potentially cause even higher rates of addiction and overdose? One of the primary advantages of Zohydro over Vicodin, the other major painkiller using hydrocodone as the narcotic ingredient, is that it is not mixed with acetaminophen. Vicodin is a combination of hydrocodone and acetaminophen, and as such is not suitable for use in some cases where a person has a known intolerance to the latter drug.
Furthermore, Vicodin sometimes causes liver damage due to adverse reactions to acetaminophen. Zohydro, on the other hand, is nothing more than hydrocodone. This new drug is not intended for the treatment of ordinary pain, either; according to Zogenix, the drug is “indicated for the management of pain severe enough to require daily, around-the-clock, long-term opioid treatment and for which alternative treatment options are inadequate.” In other words, we shouldn’t expect to see doctors prescribing Zohydro for treatment of anything short of excruciating and chronic pain, rather than simple back pain or other types of complaints that have become common in cases of painkiller prescription. All the same, the trends of the past few years have been sufficiently alarming that there has been a major outcry over the FDA’s decision to approve the drug. In fact, the agency is under major pressure from a gathering of 42 public health groups ranging from universities to drug addiction organizations, who are urging the FDA to heed the warnings of its own internal advisory panel, which voted against the approval before the agency finally did approve the medication.
What Will Happen When Zohydro Hits the Market
It could be that when Zohydro is finally released to the market this month, nothing happens beyond doctors now having another option for treating patients who suffer from severe pain. More likely, however, is that we will see an uptick in the rates of opiate painkiller addiction and overdose. Patients who are prescribed this drug are liable to become addicted even when using it under medical supervision, and there is a very real risk of overdose even under controlled circumstances.
Furthermore, there is also the problem of what happens when word gets out about this powerful new drug. Family of patients prescribed this drug may steal it from the medicine cabinet, as often already does happen with Vicodin, OxyContin and other painkillers. We may be on the brink of a new trend that could make the existing epidemic of painkiller abuse pale in comparison.
Sources:
http://www.npr.org/2014/02/26/282836473/critics-question-fdas-approval-of-zohydro