vikings/nfl

The players are numb from narcotics and other drugs. What a waste. Question: What do the owners above have to take in order to play "their game" that uses them as pawns? A few glasses of expensive champagne? The drug waiver form that each player has to sign likely has his meager salary and the names of the replacement guys for his position handwritten in the margin. Skol to Toradol, the NFL's magic elixir.

First the ER's replaced narcotics with Toradol injections because of the drug seekers. Hope they don't take away the Toradol because of the NFL. Migraine sufferers need something left!

I think a few of us out here know your health is your most important commodity....if you don't have it, nothing else matters...

Anyone who's ever been given Toradol for moderate to severe pain should know that it barely touches the pain, especially if you already have a tolerance for pain-killing analgesics like opiates. If the NFL wants to ban a commonly-used drug, ban oxycodone, the Class II narcotic with high potential for addiction. OR......just don't ban anything and stop putting bandaids on broken limbs! ADDRESS the issue and stop trying to FIX it!

No players are on narcotics before or during the game, rchackleford. Toradol/Ibuprofen BEFORE the game, Toradol/Ibuprofen AFTER the game, and a 3 day supply of narcotics in a bottle from a pharmacy through Wednesday.....just in time to do it all over again. I'm surprised no article I've seen yet has touched the concept of opiate-induced hyper-algesia -- the phenomenon of "rebound pain" once opiates are withdrawn from the body. It can create the deadly cycle of addicion through perceived pain without any real inherent health problems (although most players would have plenty without the hyper-algesia, so it's easy to pinpoint a problem to address the narcotics for).

Pain and injury - its what the NFL is all about. So not clear from the article why Toradol is the bad guy of pain meds. As far as I know it has the same safety profile as any other NSAID including aspirin. Opiates are still the serious culprit, with hyperalgesia rebound and addiction potential well known.

As a pharmacist I really don't think 1 shot a week of toradol is going to do any long term damage to 250lb or 300lb people in their 20s and 30s. To me it's just a super potent version of Advil. The danger is if someone starts bleeding while on it, especially in the head or brain, which football players could have happen. We give it to OB and total joint patients post operatively for 4 doses in 24 hours. It's the only anti inflammatory you can give intravenously or intra muscularly.

While I think this drug is getting a bad rap here, I do think the NFL and teams should do everything they can to establish a formal evidence-based pain-management protocol and encourage players to follow it. I would not have routine use of injectable Toradol as part of that protocol; ditto for narcotics (even oral ones).

@billybob8:— Hospital ERs have not replaced narcotic painkillers with Toradol, and it's not recommended for treating migraine headaches anyway.

The complications with any medication can be minimized by following recommended guidelines of use. I smell more lawsuits over the inappropriate use of Toradol here.