Nyquil has changed
 

considerably over the years. The formula now is radically different than it used to be.

It used to be 20% alcohol (40 proof). When they lowered it finally to 10% they changed the antihistamine to be stronger-- now doxylamine is in there. It never used to be. The old antihistamine was brompheniramine or chlorpheniramine. I don't recall which one. To keep it sleepy, and remove the alcohol it needed a more sedating antihistamine.

The decongestant part has undergone changes too. I am not going to go into that, as it is not necessary for this thread.

At one point in time Unisom was the only doxylamine product. Doxylamine used to be in the antinausea drug Bendectin, which was taken off the market. It was thought in the past to cause birth defects, but after 20 years, that seemed to be unprovable. (Bendectin also had Vit B6 -- which was just reapproved by the FDA for nausea in pregnancy in 50mg doses). So now doxylamine is appearing in other products more commonly.

You know honestly even I have different doctor's for the different medicines I take. But they all know exactly what else I take.

And my primary and my pharmacy watch everything I take.

I even double check anything I want to take over the counter with a specific
pharmacist I trust.

Donna

not to defend the dr's..but how many times have we been given an rx..and it doesn't work..so we get rx'ed something else...and we DO NOT throw away the old stuff?

i haven't read anything yet that says these rx's were from the same dr or that they were current rx's.

also...i think so many of us here are try and be very informed about we get rx'ed. he may not have been. may not even realized that since they were rx'ed..they shouldn't have been taken together. or that rx's and the OTC shouldn't be mixed...


just a thought....

Not the same for us as him
 

We have to remember that he wasn't just your average drug-consuming patient.

He was rich and influential. He could get anything, from any doctor, anywhere, anytime. So, even if his doctor did tell him he couldn't have oxycontin or oxycodone because he had a Vicadin prescription, he could just go to another doctor.

I'm sure he had only the best doctors, but he probably had one in LA, one in NYC, one or two or three in Europe, Australia, etc.

Things are different for the rich! [

You're right molly, he was rich and powerful on the upswing in his career, so he might have sought oxy from a different dr then he got the vicodin from. Still there will be repercussions from this, just wait, the fallout is just getting started. *sigh*

Wow. I looked up the a little bit about Virginian coal miners.
I have always felt that they should get more help than they do for their physical sacrifices that they make for the rest of us. Their work powers many of our electric plants across the country. We owe them much.

M.

Hi everyone,
 

I really would like to know what he was taking the Oxycontin for and the Vicoden. For RSD they do give the Oxy and then sometimes Vicoden if they need it along for in between the other meds.

My thing is with Oxycontin. I have seen so much bad around here from it that I have negative feelings about it anyway. You watch tv and you hear of 70 year old people robbing drugstores for it that have never been in trouble. You see teenagers dying from using it in other ways.

When people tell me they are on it I cringe. I have seen a 65 year old woman get so addicted to it that she started Dr. shopping. I have seen 2 sisters around here both addicted to it and are a mess. I saw a friend lose her job over it.

This is just my opinion but I worry about people using Oxycontin. Again, I would like to know as someone else says, why he was on it.

As far as Drs. Most of us I think let our Drs. know if we are going to other Drs. and have our records and test sent back to our main one. Me, I have the same Dr. I have had for almost 18 years and my pharmcist for over 12 years. IF we stick with the same ones we don't have to worry about being lumped with the Dr. shoppers and switching druggist.

I am on Methadone for pain and I don't worry about it like I do the Oxycontin. I was given Oxycontin a few years back and after all of the things started coming out, I quit it after only about a weeks use of it.

Ada

here are some data...
 

from 2003 diversion statistics:

http://www.usdoj.gov/ndic/pubs10/10550/index.htm

It gives a breakdown by region.

Right now because of the questionable drug detailing of OxyContin (doctors were told to use high doses with no serious side effects), some states are suing Purdue. Michigan and Kentucky were the highest diversion states at one time.
Michigan has a very high rate of drug abuse, Dilaudid at one time was the premier drug. Michigan had the highest diversion rate of this, when my husband sat on a Federal Grand Jury and heard all the cases of podiatrists diverting this drug. That was about 30 yrs ago, and the drug abuse continues, only the name of the drug changes with the times.
http://www.ncsl.org/programs/health/oxycontin.htm

The 160mg dosage form of Oxy was taken off the market because of diversion/abuse.

When Heath passed away, I saw some interviews with other actors who
worked with him, who stated that Heath had "problems" and overused drugs.
I tend to think this is just a sad drug overuse/abuse situation, like Anna Nicole Smith.

I want to know that too Ada, WHY on earth was he taking oxy? I have heard it's like synthetic herione, in my mind you'd have to be in the kind of pain I was in after nearly dying in a motorcycle accident...To me that kind of gut wrenching, back breaking pain-in that situation I might consider letting them give me oxy, but morphine did me just fine and I didn't get addicted. :p

I can't imagine that young man was in that level of pain you know? People toy around with oxy recreationally, no matter what they say, Heath might have been trying to self-medicate for some other problem and just got a Dr. to go along for the ride...Bet that prescribing dr is feeling horrible at this point. :(

I hope it comes out as to why he was given Oxy, vicodin I can understand, that treats all kinds of pain, but what I want to know is what strength he had and WHY He had both medications? That's just fishy to me, sounds like he was dr shopping and one didn't know what the other was RX'n. :(

Here's the problem I am having.

When my office colleague OD'd in October, the hospital ruled it accidental.
But the rommmate told me that the bottles were empty, looking like the colleague had taking everything.
Then the colleague told me that he had intended on not waking up.

How do the drs determine if something is accidental or not? Do they generally lean with "accidental" for some reason??

In this case, "accidental" led to him getting inappropriate/inadequate care even months later.

M.