Co-Proxamol and Suicide: Preventing the Continuing Toll of Overdose Deaths

The authors conducted a review of the international literature related to possible strategies for preventing deaths by analgesic overdoses. While there is limited evidence that educational strategies have been effective in reducing these deaths, initiatives in Scandinavia, Australia, and the United Kingdom to restrict the availability of co-proxamol have produced promising results. Given the paucity of evidence for the superior therapeutic efficacy of co-proxamol over other less toxic analgesics, there are good reasons to question whether it should continue to be prescribed. (73 refs.)