Pharmer.org

I have to disagree about Darvocet. There are numerous articles on Medscape to support the claim that Darvocet is a dangerous drug due to a number of factors. Even if someone takes them as prescribed, they can become toxic. Hop on medscape and create an account (it's free) and search for "Darvocet" & "Effectiveness".

gtrplayer

What do you mean by VA? I know here in new york darvocet is still prescribed because my mother was on them less than a year ago before moving up to hydrocodone and now oxycodone.

yup

I agree that Darvocet, like any pain med can be dangerous. If we look at every article written, none of us would want to use any pain meds. I work in a hospital and the number one drug that we have abused, or caused injury from is common Tylenol. We use Darvocet allot with patients, and I have never in all my years have ever seen, or heard of any adverse reactions to the use of this drug, other than your common first time narcotic minimal side effects. This is just what I have had actual experience with in the hospitals I have worked in, but I am sure there are some people on this site that maybe have had a bad experience with Darvocet. The biggest complaint I here is that it is to weak, but that in turn is why some patients prefer it.

Like most people say though, always consult your prescribing physician, or a qualified Pharmacist.

Gtr is right, and to add to it, I will reiterate some things stated earlier.

Obviously, it will not ALWAYS cause problems, it never would have survived this long otherwise.  A big issue I have is that it has a fairly high amount of respiratory depression associated with it's use, while at the same time, being very questionable as to whether or not it is anymore effective at killing pain than aspirin or tylenol.  

I used to work for this old pharmacist that had bee practicing for years.  I mentioned propoxyphene one day, and asked his opinion on the matter.  He said that for years, it has kind of been almost like a placebo for patients.  It is a way to give a patient a narcotic, but not have to worry about releasing anything potent.  At the time he showed me a database of medical journals he had compiled, and there were at least 10 that concluded propoxyphene is no better an analgesic than aspirin, while at the same time posing a potentially serious risk of respiratory depression, and toxicity in some cases.

Here are 2 articles I found in 5 minutes going through my personal journals.

Miller RR, Feingold A, Paxinos J. Propoxyphene hydrochloride: A critical review. Journal of the American Medical Association 1970; 213:996-1006.

Moertel CG, Ahmann DL, Taylor WF, et al. A Comparative Evaluation of Marked Analgesic Drugs. New England Journal of Medicine 1972; 286:813-5.

The former indicates that propoxyphene is no better an analgesic than aspirin or codeine, with a far greater risk of toxicity.  The latter indicates that in many cases, propoxyphene was less effective than placebo.  Both of these articles are almost 40 years old, so this is not a new discovery.  People were trying to have this drug removed from the market in the 70's because of its poor efficacy and potential dangers.

There are far safer alternatives to the use of Darvocet.  For mild pain Tylenol #3 or Vicodin provide much greater pain relief, while at the same time posing far less danger.

As Gtr pointed out earlier, if you are skeptical, Google propoxyphene + toxicity, or efficacy.  Just because it has not hurt everyone that has taken it, it does not mean that there are not far superior alternatives.

I am not a big fan of wikipedia, but even this site explains these problems, and it gives references, so it is not just the author's assumptions.   

Thank you for not thinking I was being militant about it, and I am sure Gtrplyr will appreciate the thanks as well. After posting, I thought it sounded kind of snide, which is not what I was going for.

I had the same opinion of Darvocet that you had, even after being told it was harmful. I had to actually see scientific research before I believed it, because I used to think that if something was on the market, it is safe. Our government is usually pretty good about keeping harmful drugs off the market, but this one appears to have slipped through the cracks.

It is still pretty popular, but it seems to be being rx'd less and less I have noticed, even over the last couple years. Although I still think it is on the top 100 list of most prescribed generic drugs.

Do you mean roughly 90% of all Darvocet comes from ER prescriptions, or 90% of the time you go to the ER this is what they give for pain?

i agree with hydro.  darvocet IMO was made to give to drug seekers that go dr shopping at different ERs, so the dr can give them the darvocet or ultram, so they get ticked off.  ive seen it happen in person.  i myself have never been rxed them for my neck in which i have herniated discs and DDD, usually when I go to the ER I get ATLEAST vicodin 5s if not perc 5s.  I have taken darvocet for pain and it was a joke.  I have also taken just plain propoxyphene with no APAP, Darvon it was called.  they were like long, thin football pills that said darvon 500 right on them and i think 'Lilly", if that is a pharmaceutical company.   Those were a little better, notmuch though.  BUT if u are going through the opiate withdrawal they call "hell", the darvocet would probably take the edge off a little bit, dont expect miracles though.