New FDA labeling for opioids

My personal experience with opioids began in 2002. I was in a bike accident that landed me in the hospital with a broken clavicle, four fractured ribs, a punctured lung and a concussion. During my 3-day stay in the hospital, I was connected to an IV morphine line. I don’t remember much of that stay, other than I couldn’t keep any food down. I was sent home with a prescription for Percoset, which was about as bad. I finally settled on hydrocodone, which didn’t leave me nauseous but blunted the pain. I was on hydrocodone for a month. The only complications were constipation and loss of short-term memory. I had no problem stopping. I’ve always been grateful to my docs for the prescriptions.

I see where the FDA is requiring new labeling for opioids:

“The agency is requiring opioid manufacturers to add to the prescribing information that higher doses are associated with increased risk of serious harm, and that the risks of serious harms persist over the course of therapy, among other changes. 

 

“Based on results of two postmarketing observational studies -- and the FDA advisory committee meeting discussing them this May -- new quantitative estimates of the risks of addiction, abuse, misuse, and fatal and non-fatal overdose in patients taking opioid analgesics long-term are also expected in labeling updates.”

I never read the warning labels back in the day, but I was well-aware of the risks of overdose and addiction. My father-in-law was prescribed hydrocodone for pain after surgery and refused to take it for fear of addiction.

Opioid abuse is certainly a problem, both in the US and in other countries. If stronger labeling helps, great. Color me skeptical. One of the problems with opioids is tolerance, meaning that users have to up the dosage to achieve the same effects (I didn’t have this problem, either). Non-opioid analgesia for chronic pain (for example, the pain of cancer chemotherapy) is a focus of much NIH-funded research, research that is now threatened by Trump Administration budget cuts. That research will have more impact than FDA labeling.

https://www.medpagetoday.com/painmanagement/painmanagement/116776?xid=NL_breakingnewsalert_2025-07-31&mh=eb71348a5ff6ae370cc6759bc5dc3300&zdee=gAAAAABm4u1YoCP4y5SBTJUyUyqo9KxZhft26L1xeGdP0BzzQQN1Pb_ifR6vFqhFh-3U6Q_nU7DbA-EawzzXKxSRhMOwjrOGuOKbf7OE641eN0HfnK6eObE%3D&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=OpioidAlert_073125&utm_term=NL_Daily_Breaking_News_Active 

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