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?

[Lisa J]

SWIM was told by her GP that she was safe taking 4000mgs a day for years if necessary, SWIM isn't too comfortable with this and uses less when possible.

[silentsonnet]

Originally Posted by JamesTehDino

She trusts her doctor whole heartedly

the sad thing is, doctors are human, and therefore cannot possibly be 100% correct on everything. look at history, how many people have died following the advice of doctors?

propoxy is so weak that your friend probably doesn't even need it...maybe you could convince her to try going without? (ie. the "quality of life" argument..if you're on painkillers 24/7, you aren't experiencing life at it's best) also, her doctor probably doesn't think her pain is that severe either to prescribe that. see if she can switch to aspirin (i believe one propoxy=2 aspirin tablets. yes, it's that weak!)

i don't know, it's worth a try...and no doctor in their right mind would argue against that.

[RoboCodeine7610]

Well about the paracetamol, no worries, up to 4000mg a day are ok and a lot of people abousing painkillers take waaaaaay more than that and end up fine.

About the Propoxyphene, I'm sure it does something but not nearly enough.As SilentSonnet said it is a very weak opioid but then again it's stronger when used in combination with paracetamol.

Try to get some other doctor to prescribe something like tramadol or codeine, preferabily tramadol since it has no paracetamol added.By the way, what kind of pain does she suffer from?