CHARLESTON (AP) — Patients getting treated for pain could face short-term difficulties if the federal government implements a proposed rule that would ban some of the most popular prescription painkillers.

The Food and Drug Administration is considering a proposal by a panel of experts to prohibit a range of medications that combine narcotic drugs with acetaminophen, which is the leading cause of liver failure in the U.S.

That ban would include popular brand-name drugs like Vicodin, Lortab and Percocet along with generic versions.

Drugs like the first two, which blend acetaminophen with hydrocodone, are among the most commonly prescribed pain medications in the country. In 2006, there were nearly 131 million prescriptions written for products containing hydro-codone, according to the federal Drug Enforcement Administration, with the majority containing acetaminophen.

A ban, however, could have unintended consequences for people who rely on those medications, especially in states like West Virginia, which has one of the highest rates of use of prescription painkillers in the country, according to the DEA.

“The problem is, we use Vicodin and medications like that to treat what’s classified as moderate pain,” said Dr. Alvin “Woody” Moss, a professor at the West Virginia University School of Medicine and the director of the West Virginia Center for End of Life Care.

“Medications that are used for more severe pain might not be appropriate for those patients,” he said. “It might be too much, it might make them sick, there are a number of factors to consider.”

The panel’s recommendation is based on the liver damage that can occur when people take overdoses of acetaminophen. The risk is increased when people mix prescription medications with over-the-counter products like Tylenol, which also contains acetaminophen.

“Taking more than the recommended amount can cause liver damage, ranging from abnormalities in liver function blood tests, to acute liver failure, and even death,” according to the FDA.

In the long run, Moss said, a ban could be helpful by drawing attention to the potential hazards of combination medications and by spurring the development of new products.

Hydrocodone, for example, is not available except in combination with other drugs, mostly acetamino-phen. One possible result of a ban, Moss said, could be the development of stand-alone hydrocodone products, but the lag before that happens could be frustrating for people in pain.

“It’s going to make it much harder for people with pain to get treatment,” said Penney Cowan, executive director of the American Chronic Pain Association.

The group plans to launch a multimedia guide to pain medication on its Web site in September with an eye toward educating people about combination products and other factors that many patients might overlook.

“When it comes down to it, it’s about the user, it’s not the medication,” Cowan said.

The range of treatments available for people in pain, though, might mean an FDA ban has a less drastic effect, according to University of Charleston pharmacy professor Michael O’Neil.

“Bottom line, a good doctor is going to work with the patient and find the appropriate treatment,” said O’Neil, who is also chairman of the state’s Controlled Substance Advisory Board.

West Virginia not only has a high rate of prescription drug use, it’s also been plagued by the diversion and abuse of painkillers like OxyContin and hydro-codone products. A study published in December in the Journal of the American Medical Association put the state’s prescription drug related fatal overdose rate at roughly 16 deaths per 100,000 residents, more than twice the national average.

A ban on painkillers containing acetaminophen, though, would be unlikely to improve the problems with abuse and addiction, O’Neil and Moss say.

“Abuse and diversion will continue, it just means the drug that people are abusing the most is going to change,” Moss said.