Co-proxamol
Posted: Mon 31 January, 2005 Filed under: Health 868 Comments »Interesting to see today that the painkiller co-proxamol is to be scrapped. Apparently it’s been linked with up to 400 deaths per year and a study found it was the second biggest method of drug-related suicide in the UK, accounting for almost one in five deaths.
I’ve used co-proxamol before, and I can see why it’s easy to overdose on, either intentionally or accidentally. It’s a seriously heavy gun in the world of painkillers, and while it’s sad to see something so effective be withdrawn from the market, I can understand the reasons why it’s necessary to do so.
Oh fuck.
Oh fuckety fuckety fuck.
Co-proxamol is the literally the only painkiller I can take which actually works when I have a serious pain problem (I’m allergic to morphine/codeine, anti-inflammatory drugs make me puke and muscle relaxants can put me in a wheelchair).
Oh fuck.
Best start stocking up. It’s being phased out over the next 18 months…
Buggery bugger bugger from here too.
That’s about the only thing that comes close when I get period pain!
Well, I think if people want to commit suicide it’s all up to them. Accidental deaths are a serious issue, but this business with it being the cause of suicide is crap. If you want to commit suicide 1) the State shouldn’t get in the way and 2) you’ll find something else to do it with. IMO.
I agree. It is a rubbish decision. Patients and prescribers were in favour of continued use – the RCP etc seem to have overruled them.
There full of shit, ive been taking co-prox for over 10 years.
This helps my multiple motorbike wounds & migrians, and i am not
dead.Co-prox kills the pain and keeps you up a bit,it dose not make
me want kill myself.(If anyone knows a dececent stand in 4 co-prox
please let me know).
I feel so unhappy about the withdrawal of Co Proxamol, that I have implemented a discussion forum on http://www.coproxamol.org.uk. I hope, enough patients will visit in order to gather momentum and stop the withdrawal.
I feel so unhappy about the withdrawal of Co Proxamol, that I have implemented a discussion forum on http://www.coproxamol.org.uk. I hope, enough patients will visit in order to gather momentum and stop the withdrawal.
Huh !
I find co-proxamol is about the best pain killer on the market got more to-day. Stock up. I have used other without success inc patches they dont work.
I recently got tramadol after appedix removal they make me sleepy paracetamol have little or no effect at all except reduce fevers.dhc continous are good too but morphine iv at hospital is the best.
Long live co-proxamol
Yes, this is a disaster for those of us for whom the medication has an absolutely positive effect upon our lives. How we fight these decisions – I don’t know, but we must get some form of pressure group together to make a stand against this violation of our rights to lead a life which is not hell due to constant pain. So, let’s COMPLAIN LOUDLY – rather than being dismissed without respect to our needs and preferences in our own medical treatment.
I can’t believe it! I went to collect my repeat prescription today, and co-proxamol was crossed out, and I was given paracetamol instead!
I have been taking coprox for more than 10 years, 8 a day, for chronic pain. I am really concerned that I might get withdrawal symptoms now. I have not been able to wean myself off the drug, as suggested. My Dr hasn’t discussed an alternative drug, and I feel really gutted that I may be back to square one pain wise. I also take Zydol and Dihydrocodeine,but Coprox has always been there every 4-6 hours to ease the pain regularly, though it never goes away completely. Does anyone know a similar,suitable substitute. What about Codydramol? Is that the same? Please help if you can. Thanks.
i AM WEARING FENTANYL PATCHES AND IND THAT IF I NEED MORE PAIN RELIEF,CO-PROX.IS JUST THE JOB.THIS ENABLES ME TO GET RELIEF WITHOUT UPPING THE DOSE OF FENTANYL.I AM ALLERGIC TO CODEINE WHICH IS IN ANALGESICS, AND PARACETAMOL ARE NOT THE SAME. AS THEY ARE A PRESCTIPTION ONLY DRUG,ONE WAY IS TO HAVE CO-PROX ON A NAMED PATIENT BASIS.THEN THOSE WHO HAVE HAD THEM FOR MANY YEARS AND STILL FIND THEM EFFECTIVE, COULD STILL USE THEM. IT WOULD STOP IDIOTS USING THEM FOR OTHER PURPOSES THAN PAIN RELIEF.
if you join emed they charge £20 membership then £15 per prescription. depends what pharmacy they send it to but it costs either £13 or £30 for 200 with next day delivery.
Sadly emed cannot prescribe Co-Proxamol either according to them the withdawal means exactly that.
Save This Drug
no no no
I have taken “co-prox” on an irregular basis now for about 10 years to counter the increasing pain caused be arthritis and have had no problem of addiction whatever. I have always avoided alcohol when taking it having been warned of the potential danger and I resent this blanket withdrawal. I really cannot accept that we are ALL so daft that we need to be dealt with in this high-handed way. Why on earth can’t our G.P.’s be allowed to use their discretion?
my husband has been taking co-proxamol since 1988, on prescription. He has no alternative, even doctors accept this. His condition requires dextropropoxyphene. He had a diving incident in l988 and has cerebral and spinal damage. This drug is the only one which controls his muscle spasms. he has been hospitalised to try to find alternatives and came out with more prescriptions that he went in with.What is his alternative? Who is going to look after him? Does this government care at all. I doubt it.
People here trying to save this drug
i have taken coproxamol for back pain since 1998. yes i am also addicted to it. my gp has been wonderful. visiting me at home each week for 13 weeks now
What the hell is de point of taking co-proxamol off the market just because of people who are stupid enough to use them as suicide pills when people can just go from pharmacy to pharmacy nd get loads of paracetemol which are easier to get and can also be used for suicied.
P.S. Does anyone know where co-proxamol can be got from now it is off the market, I was told that it was possible to get it off the internet, bu8t I can’t find anywhere?
My mother,who is in her 90’s had been taking co-proxamol for many years for her severe arthritis.She has now been given co-cadamol as a substitute. She might as well eat sweets for the good it does. She has been in excrutiating pain since she has no longer been taking co-proxamol.Life is unbearable for her and I would like to punch the responsible,selfish bastards into the middle of next week for what they have done to her by causing this drug to be made unavailable.I sometimes feel like committing suicide myself when she is crying with the pain. Do any of the medical profession care? Do they HELL AS LIKE.
co proxamol is an ace pain killer and when your suffering its a fuckin great buzz they are selfish and i fuckin hate this country ive been on them scince i waS 16 IM KNOW 27 IM WITH YOU ALL ON THIS
I have been taking co-proxamol since 1994 for severe back pain and use it wisely. Why should people like me and you suffer coz of a few idiots who want to end it all? With co-prox, i i can lead areasonably normal life. Without it, I can barely stand up, let alone walk. My doc wants to try me on co-codamol, but i’m allergic to codeine. I’m fucked! Does the government give a toss? I may as well throw in the towel and resign myself to a life of agony. This is the wrong decision to make and i think they should reverse this before there are riots. Tony Blair, are u listening, you tosser?
I have been taking co-proximol for 12 years. Last april my doctor told me that as they were taking it off the market, I couldn’t have any more, so I might as well get used to something else. I can’t take codeine, becaue of bowel problems. all other drugs tried so far have made me ill. I had one hell of a summer last year. Then bliss, my doctor went away for 6 months and his locum said I could have them if the chemist still stocked them. All chemists near me still have them in stock. Now my doctor is back and won’r give them to me any more. I seize up without co-proximol and dread the future. I spoke to someone from the Pharma. Co who produced the last batch I have. I was told there is a possibility they may start making them again later this year. I pray that will be the case.
My wife has Multiple Sclerosis. She was diagnosed some 30-odd years ago and since diagnosis has uised Co-Proxamol exclusively at up to the maximum recommended dose of eight tablets per 24 hour period. There is no alternative that is anywhere near as effective in reducing the severe muscular and neural pain she would be constantly suffering if she could not have Co-Proxamol. I suffer from Arthritis, Angina and Hypertension and have bad problems from the four Hernias and four right knee replacements which can only be solved by Co-Proxamol. Although the pain we suffer can drive one to despair, Neither of us has ever become suicidal. If we did we would choose a more positive and quick way to end our lives. The withdrawal of Co-Proxamol is more likely to make us consider suicide than the Co-Proxamol ever did or would. Who gave this Kwango the right to nanny us? What medical qualifications do they hold? I suggest that they are only interested in £ and p and certainly not the patients interest. I strongly urge these idiots to take the advice given by a stable hospital doctor who suggests that the use be restricted to those patients Like my wife who can demonstrate a necessity for Co-Proxamol for her continued well-being.
I have just read the comments regarding co proxamol and I too agree that banning this medication is not going to make the slightest bit of difference to someone who wants to kill themselves. I have been using this drug for 10 years for severe back pain and now its been taken away. All us responsible users are now suffering because there is no alternative, nothing else gives effective relief. REVERSE THE BAN and treat people as individuals. It is our right to have a say in what is best for us, as said before, if someone wants to die they will do it with whatever else they can get there hands on. This ban is not going to lower the suicide rate.
the truth about co.proxamol is that other drug companys paid a UK minister of health a whopping sum of money to get it of the market so the other drugs comapnys can sell there products. the was 8 million people on co.proxamol in the UK by 2004. and increasing. it made billions for the company. but other brands wasnt selling as good as co.proxamol so there you go folks. blame it on the money again and the politiacians who make money from these companies.
weve been sold out by the greedy bastards
I would like to get in touch with the person posting under the name ‘pill popper’ as I have a particular interest in the theory that the pharmaceutical companies may have a role to play in the withdrawal of co-proxamol.
I am patient who has taken co-proxamol for the last 6 years and have spent quite a long time researching the different views as to why co-proxamol is being withdrawn.
I would be grateful if ‘pill popper’ would be able to contact me in private to discuss certain issues.
Pam Caygill
Can all morons thinking of suicide do it with something else please. Leave Co-Prox for people in pain.
I’ve been on it for months now for a spinal problem, but it doesn’t help at all when the pains is bad. Two / three / four days unrelenting agony and the only way out is my Co-Prox, but I gave my Doc my word that I wouldn’t. (I’m saving some Diazapam etc as I gave my word about Co-Prox)
I could pack Co-Prox up tomorrow with no effort but the substitutes don’t suit me either. Someone suggested Morphine drip is the best! I found it had no effect at all. The pain remained but I was half concious with Morphine.
The only thing I will say is, that if you get hooked, put up with the pain to get off them. Start again with alternatives.
I’ve just finished a Morphine course, and it was a couple of really bad days coming off it, but who needs an addiction as well as the pain.
WHO do we lobby as a pressure group about the unfair withdrawal of this excellent form of pain relief? (I’ll try and find out and let you know if I can) – We really must campaign vigorously at the highest political level possible for our human rights to have this medication restored upon a prescription/?”named patient” basis to those for whom there are no suitable alternative medications/treatments for chronic/acute pain of whatever cause.
For those who find this medication totally suitable and who use it responsibly, their whole quality of life – a life as free as possible from disabling chronic pain and distress – even potential clinical depression resulting from poorly controlled chronic pain-is surely a basic human right in the purportedly democratic “United Kingdom”.
?Is this ban in operation in any other parts of the world does anyone know?
It seems downright barbaric, ignorant, and uncaring therefore to simply stop patients’ supplies (in some cases without warning and the opportunity to try and find suitable alternatives other than Paracetamol alone – which may not have sufficient effect for pain relief.)
As a comparison – how would people feel if quite suddenly pain-relief during childbirth was removed overnight? Or, if anaesthesia during surgical procedures was withdrawn? (While we’re at it, let’s bring back the “birch”, and hanging as corporal/capital punishment.)
This compound drug has been in use for many decades and has been prescribed regularly to millions. There is nothing similar to it to bring relief to those people who find it suitable and tolerable and who, without it, would not be able to lead a fairly “normal” life: i.e. managing to get up and move about/work in the daytime/evening without the burden of chronic pain. This affects not only the individual with pain but the entire family and society ultimately.
It is indeed tragic that some have died as a result of taking this drug – it is therefore very important that the prescribing practitioner ascertains as thoroughly as possible whether a patient is at risk of suicide – in which case, sadly, they’d complete suicide no matter what drug was being prescribed; it is very easy to just go and buy a stock of non-prescription drugs or find other methods with which to end one’s life. By virtue of this fact should we stop selling bleach in case people drink it, stop people going near the sea or tall buildings in case they drown themselves or jump off, stop people buying cars/hosepipes in case they complete suicide with carbon monoxide poisoning? Etc. etc. ….. (add your own ideas) – ? razor blades, ? kitchen knives ….
It would not be at all surprizing if the number of deaths by completing suicide rose amongst people with chronic pain due to their feeling helpless and unable to control their symptoms by the means which they have been using quite legally and successfully for many years – i.e. Co-proxamol.
Other deaths from this medication (non-intentional and therefore “misadventure”) also occur. However, we should have a right to choose the medication which we find helpful as long as we are made fully aware of the risks involved. Plenty of other medications cause death – all prescribed medication has side-effects, especially when in combination with other drugs such as alcohol, or non-legal substances. It would make more sense to stop manufacturing cigarettes and alcohol when bearing in mind the death toll that they create on a yearly basis. And yet, they are freely and legally available if desired. The choice rests with the individual (and of course, the revenue from sales of tobacco and alcohol benefits the government of this country.)
I would imagine that there have been/are pending medicolegal suits concerning the ill-effects/fatal effects of this drug. This would explain some of the reluctance of prescribers to keep issuing this medication.
Perhaps if patients were given the properly informed option of signing some sort of legal “waiver” – as is the case when patients sign a form to undergo operative surgical procedures – there may be a legal way for people to obtain what they need without the prescribing practitioner being made to feel ultimately culpable in the event of something going wrong.
There are thousands of us in this country in this difficult and distressing situation – let us, with the assistance of other sympathetic doctors take some action against this assault upon our human rights.
I agree with most of your comments. I too have to take this drug for arthritis and do not know what the hell I am going to do. Does this mean the end to my gardening?.I have written to the DOH and received a standards answer. I have now written to my MP whose secretary has forwarded my letter to the DOH..I suppose that I will receive yet another standard reply. I used to run a Drug Advice Centre for 12 years and I find it hard to comprehend why, when 1million+ people are using this drug…that suicides of 400+ are used as a reason for withdrawing it. When I visited a liver ward of a hospital I was informed that people could die from a dose as low as 8 paracetamol tablets. Paracetamol is surely the cause of the deaths and not the dextopropoxyphene???? People were stopped from buying large quantities of paracetamol by the companies reducing the amount available for sale at any one time. But we all know that if one is intent on committing suicide, then a few visits to your local supermarket would do the trick. Have they stopped the production of paracetamol???? NO.
If there are any people willing or ABLE to pay a visit to the powers that be I would gladly come along…no matter how much it hurts.
Help, Help I am now dessparate. I am also putting myself at risk by taking a mixture of pain killers to try and reduce my back pain. I have read all above comments and most of you share the same problems. I have used Co Prox for about 20 years and have never found anything that works nearly as well. I am now more at risk from a an accidental overdose from some other drug to help me keep the quality of life i once had. I have bad withdrawl effects lack of sleep, and constant pain even with a the max dose of the “alternative” painkillers. I am becoming depressed by the constant pain. Hold on depressed people commit suicide dont they!!. Did the government not consider that taking away such an effective drug might actually lead to the suicide rate actually going up!! Once again the descision to remove a life improving medication has been made by people whos lives are perfectly ok. I have not had a pain free nights sleep for about 25 years, now its seems I have to put up with pain 24 hours a day. Well done !!!
like you paul its the same with me but i still go to the doctors and insist i get the distalgesic i have just come away this morning with another box and i intend to keep trying till i do so for as long as it takes good luck to you all
We need your help with our new site!.
we are a group of patients who are challenging the MHRA over the withdrawal of Co-Proxamol
I have taken Co-Proxamol, responsibly, for chronic back pain for the last ten years. Now my doc has presecribed Co-Dydramol and guess what, it doesent touch my pain and it gives me constipation as a bonus. I agree with all my other fellow sufferers on this page and deplore this ridiculous ‘nanny state’ attitude and find it difficult to imagine that is the only reason for withdrawal of this drug, which seems to be the only one that does the job for so many chronic pain suffers. Don’t we have rights too? If there was an effective alternative then there would be no problem but apparently there isn’t and at fifty years of age I face many years of pain ahead of me, a much reduced quality of life, which not only affects me but my family and friends too. Well done POWERS THAT BE, what a great public service you’ve done, I hope you are sleeping content in your bed tonight because I sure as hell won’t be or ever again, for that matter.
got more again this afternoon i wont give up
we still need your help here , click the name nasda to take you to our site
I meant click Nancy
what do i do and i will do it
These are the only thing that can releive my severe back pain, alergic to codeine and really don’t know what I will do.
they are stupid sods you wont get a painkiller like them anywhere bring them back !!!!!!
hi dawn we are working on it i got another hundred today
My mother (82 – her age, not her name) has been happily using co-proxamol for years to relieve arthritis pain in her shoulders, neck and head. This is pain that leaves her in bits when it strikes. It strikes often.
She has taken the drug sensibly and frugally since it was first prescribed for her. Working on the theory that some pain and three doses a day is better than four doses a day as the norm (and then she is stymied when the pain gets worse), she has eked out her allowance for years. And then the government decided (around the time it was hugely embarrassed by Dr David Kelly topping himself on co-proxamol. Moi? A cynic? How could you suggest such a thing?) that mere mortals are not to be trusted to take strong medicines. Let’s face it, we are all suicide cases just waiting to leap on a box of co-proxamol… aren’t we?
The upshot is that my mother is now fighting her way through a variety of replacement drugs. None work and, worse, all make her feel either dreadful or seriously ill. And as for “paracetemol is just as effective”…. why do you think she went to the doctor in the first place? Because over-the-counter remedies don’t touch the pain.
This government wants us to believe that they are protecting us from harm, that co-proxamol can kill us if we wish to commit suicide. In that case Mr Blair, remove every prescription drug from the market place. Remove all household cleaning products… dammit, remove water from our reach. If you drink too much water, it, too, can kill you (it flushes out all the salts and electrolytes from your system and you end up pushing up the daisies). Ask the actor, Anthony Andrews, who almost went toes up through drinking too much of the stuff. Oh, and ban buses, tubes, cars, trucks and trains – people throw themselves in front of same on a regular basis. Although quite where that would leave Ken Linvingstone and his congestion charge, who knows….
The suggestion that co-proxamol is being withdrawn because it is cheap to produce, is hugely effective and has few side effects and, therefore, is stopping other drugs companies from making millions of pounds from more complicated yet less effective products does ring true.
Let’s face it, this government is millions in hock to private financiers (“Roll up, roll up – anyone wanna buy a peerage? Step right up…”)so kow-towing to a few drugs companies might seem like a good idea. Meanwhile the voters can suffer in pain and frustration.
In the meantime, my mother battles on. She is 82, has paid her taxes all her life, has done what she is told and has asked little of the state. And now the state tells her that, for the common good, she should spend the rest of her days in agony. My mother, like the rest of the people contributing to this forum, has a voice. Why will the state not listen to it?
i have been on co proxamol for many years as i have a disease in my spine that causes cronic pain. I found co proxamol is the only medication that gives me any kind of pain relef. Since it has been taken off the market my doctor has prescribed me so many other things i feel like a guini pig trying all the various other medications that are all basicly crap and dont relieve the pain and they make me sick. Does any body know if it is possible to buy co proxamol from another country? please help im climbing the walls. People having to put up with this level of pain are more likly to suffer depression and commit suicide. the worlds gone to pot.
My mother took coproxamol for many years for chronic arthritis pain. Nothing on Earth works better for her. My father, a retired GP, and she,a retired nurse, are disgusted by it’s withdrawal. Such decisions are none of the goverment’s business and they have no place dictating what’s “best” for people. If they gave a shit about anything but lining their pockets they’d ban cigarettes, a real killer, they’d plough money into preventing further damage to the planet so people who don’t want to top themselves actually have somewhere for them and future generations TO live in, stop war-mongering, and fix instead of fuck the NHS. If they must nanny us, how about they supply unemployed parents with “healthy-food tokens” to feed their offspring decent food instead of handing over working-peoples money for them to spend on fags, lottery and micro-chips? I, also a nurse, have developed arthritis at the age of 33, so have many years of pain to look forward to without the availability of a superb painkiller with few unpleasant side-effects, such as codeine and tramadol (barf!) and NSAIDS (could live without a perforated duodenal ulcer, ta). Great. Think I’ll go and top myself thanks Blair. You Fuck.
i couldnt agree more
My mother is 76 and has been taking co-proxomol for years with no problems. Over the years she has tried various other alternatives but always returns to co-proxomol. Can any of the “so-called” experts imagine what it is like watching someone in such constant pain that they cry all day and night and seriously contemplate suicide as they really can’t take any more without their prescription of Co-proxomol. They are so worried about the 400 suicides but what about the genuine patients who overdose in trying to find alternatives and particularly elderly people who may get confused taking three or four alternatives along with other medication they may be on. As a daughter I would be willing to pay whatever it costs to buy co-proxomol from another country and will do my f****y best to find some. This decision is destroying thousands of lives, it is absolutely heart-breaking seeing someone you love in such pain.
Please can I have an internet address, for a website that sells co-proxamol? I have terrible back-pain, it won’t be prescribed to me no more, please I have terrible pain?
Thank-you