Does that mean the risks are very low? What about compared to aspirin alternatives such as ibuprofen or acetaminophen (in terms of how much damage they can each cause to the body, and which is safer)?
>Low-dose aspirin, commonly defined as 75–325 mg daily, is used for primary and secondary prevention of cardiovascular events such as myocardial infarction (MI).
The whole purpose of aspirin here is its blood-thinning properties and the effect this has on cardiovascular events. Do ibuprofen and acetaminophen have those same properties, or are you just calling them alternatives in terms of pain relief or other applications?
At the time, it apparently seemed a good alternative to aspirin which does cause some number of people to have stomach problems. (As well as having a particularly extensive repertoire of only somewhat understood physiological effects, for better or worse.)
If true, it's alarming that the way to "prevent abuse" is to poison the patient.
Of course, addicts have found ways to extract the opiates from the adulterants, so it's not even effective.
Adding it for synergism makes sense and is what I was taught in medical school. I doubt they add it to deter abusers, but I could be wrong...
Here's an interesting discussion from 2010, before they were rescheduled
https://painmedicine.oxfordjournals.org/content/11/3/379.ful...
I was told by an emergency room nurse that Vicodin is not killing patients/abusers; it the liver damage that results from the acetaminophen.
A few years ago, I heard they were talking about removing it, but lost track of the outcome.