Killer headache?

A new study in the UK today suggests that the withdrawal of co-proxamol from the market has “dramatically cut suicides”.

A gradual phase-out of co-proxamol led to 350 fewer suicides and accidental deaths in England and Wales, a study in the British Medical Journal reports. Regulators removed the drug's licence in 2007 after fears about the risk of overdose but the move proved unpopular with some patients and doctors. Arthritis Care says some patients now struggle to control their pain. The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency announced the withdrawal in 2005[Source: bbc.co.uk].

The language of this article is a little confusing, stating that the numbers of deaths resulting from overdose (accidental or intentional) have been drastically reduced since doctors stopped prescribing it. Clearly we didn’t need a study (or an IQ above double digits) to presume that fewer people would die from a drug they can no longer obtain. I would have to guess that, unless this is the world’s dumbest article, they meant that suicide rates by people taking prescribed analgesics is down. Either way, I’ve only heard bad things about this particular opioid. But don’t worry people with mild pain/fans of Goth poetry, Wikipedia assures me the drug is still available in the US, despite it’s supposed role in a quarter of the drug deaths in Florida

United States
On January 30, 2009, it was reported that the FDA was conducting a hearing to determine the safeness of dextropropoxyphene. According to reports, it was found in the bodies of 25% of people in Florida who died in drug related deaths. [17] An FDA panel voted to recommend that dextropropoxyphene be removed from the market, based on its weak pain killing abilities, addictiveness, association with drug deaths and possible heart problems, including arrhythmia.
Black Box Warning
Dextropropoxyphane carries a Black Box Warning in the U.S., the strongest warning given by the FDA. The black box warning for Dextropropoxyphene warns that:
Propoxyphene should be used with extreme caution, if at all, in patients who have a history of substance/drug/alcohol abuse, depression with suicidal tendency, or who already take medications that cause drowsiness (e.g., antidepressants, muscle relaxants, pain relievers, sedatives, tranquilizers). Fatalities have occurred in such
patients when propoxyphene was misused. [source: en.wikipedia.org]

The FDA sucks. There are states in which I would have to submit an essay about abstinence if I want the morning after pill (mine referenced Twilight), but they have no problem dolling out the elderly death pill. Don’t get me wrong, the fewer old folks on the road, the better, but this is a matter of principle. Oooh, a black box warning. Attention FDA: people are dumb. Black box drugs could literally come in a black box, with the words “Don’t take this IT WILL MURDER YOU” on the front and people will still shove it into their faces because they got it from their doctors. Although, I suppose death does technically cure that pesky restless leg syndrome.