Health - Concern For My Friend (Propoxyphene)

[JamesTehDino]

Propoxyphene APAP + NAP (Substitute for Darvocet -N 100)


I have a friend who was prescribed Propoxyphene a year ago, (give or take a few months) for relief of her pain. Before that she was taking Vicodin, but her doctor took her off of them and put her on the Propoxyphene.

Now first off I would like to point out that she does not abuse her medications in any way shape or form.

The problem is the acetaminophen in the pills. I believe that these particular pills contain 650 mg of acetaminophen per pill. The dosage recommended on the bottle says to take one pill every 4 hours as needed. I know that my friend takes at least 3 of these pills every day.

Now that means on a daily basis she is consuming at least 1950 mg of acetaminophen. My concern is that she is doing serious damage to her liver. Isn't taking these pills for a year at that dosage going to have some serious consequences? Possibly liver failure down the road?

Her doctor keeps filling the prescription month after month... She trusts her doctor whole heartedly and any words of warning coming from me mean absolutely nothing to her because I am young.

My question is: Exactly how bad can this potentially be for her health, and how can I get through to her?