Health roundup: Eye drops, nose sprays can poison kids

Your Friday morning health roundup:

Medicine warning: Non-prescription eye drops and decongestant nose sprays can be very harmful if swallowed and have sickened thousands of children, the Food and Drug Administration says. In a new warning, the FDA is asking parents to store these common medicines out of the reach of children. The Consumer Product Safety Commission is seeking new child-resistant packaging for the products, but most now come in easy-to-open containers. Brands include Visine eye drops and Afrin, Dristan and Mucinex decongestants. (WebMD)

Vicodin abuse: There's not enough evidence that putting drugs such as Vicodin in a stricter regulatory category will fight abuse, FDA scientists say in a written opinion that will be discussed at a meeting Monday and Tuesday. Several groups want tighter prescription rules for such drugs, which combine the opiate hydrocodone with other medicines. (MedPage Today)

Amputation trend: Leg amputations are becoming less common in people over age 65 with clogged arteries, a new study shows. Better treatments may be playing roles. But there still were 186,000 amputations among Medicare patients between 2000 and 2008. (Reuters)

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Today's talker: Yes, you can be scared to death. And older women are most at risk for dying from heart attacks caused by fright or other sudden stresses, says a doctor who studies so-called stress cardiomyopathy syndrome. Such events have been linked to terrorist attacks, earthquakes and even Friday the 13th -- but not Halloween, says Martin Samuels, chairman of the neurology department at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. (ABC News)