by Nicole Lou: Complete Post through this link…
ngd-These drugs are a significant contributor to the problem of death by polypharmacy and they aren’t acknowleded as part of the prescribing issue…
OTC agents are not safe alternatives to prescription opioids, study suggests.
Over-the-counter agents misused to curb opioid withdrawal or induce euphoria at high doses were linked to a disproportionate number of lethal arrhythmias reported to national pharmacovigilance systems, researchers found.
Antidiarrheal drug loperamide, a weak synthetic opioid, was significantly associated with ventricular arrhythmia (proportional reporting ratio [PRR] 3.2, 95% CI 3.0-3.4), with 37% of the 1,008 FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS) reports involving death.
The arrhythmic signal was worse — an 8.9 PRR (95% CI 6.7-11.7) — for mitragynine, the primary active ingredient in the herbal supplement kratom. Fully 91% of its 46 FAERS reports resulted in death.