While opioids are excellent at treating acute and chronic pain, they’re also incredibly addictive. As the body becomes more and more used to their presence, it starts to change the way that it works on a cellular level. And eventually, it actually is unable to function normally without these drugs.

The opioid epidemic began in the 1990s when physicians started prescribing prescription opioids at an alarming rate. Part of this surge was due to aggressive marketing on the part of the pharmaceutical companies. Another factor was that opioids were sold as “non-habit-forming” pain medications.

This misrepresentation of the drugs by these pharmaceutical companies led to massive rises in opioid addiction among patients across the country. And when regulations tightened after these drugs were exposed to be addictive, many of these patients turned to the cheaper and more readily available alternative opioid – heroin.

By 2013, a new opioid called fentanyl was showing up in heroin batches more and more. And since this drug was 50 to 100 times stronger than morphine, just a small amount could lead to a fatal overdose.

Today, around 130 Americans die every single day because of an opioid overdose. And in 2017 alone, nearly 48 thousand people were killed by opioids – a rate 6 times higher than fatal opioid overdoses in 1999.

Darvon, Darvocet, and Darvocet N are all medications that contain propoxyphene. They are the same drug under different brand names.

Darvocet is slightly different in that it also contains acetaminophen. This drug helps strengthen the effects of propoxyphene. But it can also lead to additional problems when it comes to abuse since it can end up being toxic to the liver.

Other drugs containing propoxyphene include Darvon N and Dolene.

For years, Darvocet was considered the go-to pain medication most patients received. It was first patented in the 1950s. However, there have been serious concerns about the drug's safety ever since then.

Chronic pain medication users often wonder why Darvocet was taken off the market. It was a drug that worked well, but its negative effects were much more concerning.

According to WebMD, every drug containing propoxyphene was banned in 2010. Studies show that this medication produced serious heart side effects for healthy individuals. These side effects were even evident among those taking normal dosages.

Taking Darvocet can result in fatal heart rhythm abnormalities. This discovery comes after Xanodyne Pharmaceuticals, who made this medication, conducted their own tests at the behest of the FDA after serious concerns. The ban occurred six years after it was banned in the UK, resulting in thousands of deaths in the U.S.

The drug is so deadly, in fact, that an FDA study showed that more deaths were connected to propoxyphene (16 per 100,000) than other more notorious opioids like tramadol (10 per 100,000) and hydrocodone (8 per 100,000).

While the ban itself was certainly the right decision, the FDA has faced harsh criticism for acting far too late. And as consumers rights groups have pointed out, if they had banned the drug earlier, literally thousands of lives could have been saved.