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But medical professionals disagree, and say that those suffering from chronic pain will not be left without medication should the FDA decide to heed the advice of the panel.
"There are a lot more drugs out there than are being used," said Dr. Charles Kim, a pain management specialist at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York.
"I would tell patients who are panicking over [this vote] to relax, it doesn't mean they're going to take pain medication off the market completely but just that they're thinking about changing certain prescribing patterns to increase safety," said Kim.
More FDA regulation on prescription combination agents as well as more labeling of over-the-counter acetaminophens could help reduce the number of unintended overdoses, according to Dr. Eugene Viscusi, the director of pain management at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia.
Because nearly 42,000 people visit emergency departments each year with acetaminophen overdoses, half of which are accidental, eliminating drugs that aren't clearly labeled to have acetaminophen in them could decrease this number significantly, said Viscusi.
"The problem is not just with prescription narcotics," said Viscusi, "It's their use in combination with over-the-counter drugs."
Eliminating combination drugs would result in patients being able to treat their pain with two different pills, rather than just one. While some may see this as an inconvenience, Viscusi said he's hopeful it might lead to increased awareness about what patients are actually ingesting.
"This would be the best thing," said Viscusi. "If you're taking the acetaminophen separately from your opioid then you know exactly what you're taking."
And as for patients who say nothing else will ease their pain but the acetaminophen-based narcotics, Viscusi says there are other drugs that can help them.
"There will be other drugs, it just may require a little adjustment in thinking for those doctors who consistently prescribe Vicodin and Percocet," said Viscusi.
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