OTC Pain Reliever Initiative Is Launched

The National Consumers League and the FDA unveiled a new publiceducation campaign on OTC pain relievers, called "Take With Care." Thepurpose of the campaign, launched June 10, 2004, is to alert Americans tothe most common medication errors associated with taking OTC painrelievers. Among those errors is taking too much of a single product or combiningOTC pain relievers with certain prescription drugs. The campaignalso will identify underlying health conditions where special precautionsneed to be taken when using OTC pain relievers.

A study, reported recently in the Journal of the American Medical Association,found that 80% of American adults claim that they take an OTCpain reliever at least once a week. Furthermore, 82% of women said thatthey have used a nonprescription drug to treat at least 1 minor health problem,compared with 71% of men.