paracetamol - no more dangerous a drug out there.

[soundoffear]

I know some warnings come with a wink/nod... but when it comes to paracetamol theres no messing about. I know this has been mentioned before but to see it in the news may bring it home as it did for SWIM.

SWIM thought that there was a bit of a buffer zone when it comes to recommended doses but it does NOT apply to paracetamol as it seems. SWIM was pretty shocked with the below artical, especially for anyone who knows of peeps who do CWE or the like please take note :

http://www.metro.co.uk/news/article....&in_page_id=34


laterSkaters.

PS admins if this should belong in the another area please redirect, i think its well worth noting for all have SPTK using Cold water Ex.

[drug-bot]

just to clarify for those of us living in the usa paracetamol is called acetaminophen here.

Reputation Comments on this post:

Thanks for that!

[soundoffear]

Cool Cool, just think that it should be noted world wide anyways, SWIM would never imagine 500mg over the recommended dosage ( continuous over two days ) could cause fatal liver damage!

Is this common knowledge??

I take it acetaminophen in the US is as common a painkiller as paracetamol in the UK? paracetamol is pretty much the number 1 when it comes to the standard run of the mill painkiller in the UK?

[tryptamaster]

Yea in the us acetiminophen is very common for minor pain.

[witchychick]

Originally Posted by soundoffear

Cool Cool, just think that it should be noted world wide anyways, SWIM would never imagine 500mg over the recommended dosage ( continuous over two days ) could cause fatal liver damage!

Is this common knowledge??

I take it acetaminophen in the US is as common a painkiller as paracetamol in the UK? paracetamol is pretty much the number 1 when it comes to the standard run of the mill painkiller in the UK?

i have not heard of anyone dying from so small an amount over the max daily dosage other than this but i do know two people ( both otherwise healthy young men ) who died of a paracetamol od.. one took 28 plus alcohol and was found after the allotted antidote time. the second , more scarily took just 12 pills and died despite being given the antidote. it just did not work because his body had already started to metabolise it. both died very painful and horrible deaths and it is amazing that this is so freely available and something like cannabis is illegal.

in fact i am thinking, is there any other drug ( legal or illegal ) that can cause this so easily in some people. liver damage on opiates takes a long time usually and some people do not get any at all.

so is there any substance as dangerous and easy to do permanent damage with/ or worse die?

opinions?

[Felix Guattari]

Not hating, but could someone change the title of the thread to something that makes sense? Would help for reference purposes.

While it is possible to cause liver damage with acetaminophen/paracetamol alone, I'm sure many more liver failures are caused by the combination of acetaminophen with one or several other hepatotoxic pharmaceuticals; many common antidepressants, NSAIDs (of which acetaminophen is an example), erythromycin, as well as some benzodiazepines, put stress on the liver, and though they may or may not cause any explicit toxicity of their own, can make damage from things like acetaminophen and alcohol worse.

That's not intended to sound alarmist, as safe use of acetaminophen and most of the above listed is quite possible. Just a friendly reminder not to take the overuse of such freely dispensed pharmaceuticals lightly.

[Panthers007]

Paracetamol (acetaminophen - commonly called Tylenol in the USA) causes more deaths than any other drug on the planet - prescribed or otherwise. Your chances of knowing someone who dies from this drug are about 50/50.

But don't use cannabis for pain - it's bad for you!

[Ontherooftops]

Paracetamol (acetaminophen - commonly called Tylenol in the USA) causes more deaths than any other drug on the planet - prescribed or otherwise. Your chances of knowing someone who dies from this drug are about 50/50.

A reference for that would be great Panthers.

It would be nice to know how much half a tablet was in terms of mg. Swim has seen pills ranging from 200-500mg, she could have been taking between 1600 and 4000mg a day

[fiveleggedrat]

" Advisory body the Commission on Human Medicines said: 'Unfortunately, there is no medication that is 100 per cent safe.'"

Too bad they can't have that attitude with anything but this garbage.

[Panthers007]

Oh Lordy! I found that out years ago. I'm sure you can find it via some inventive Googling. Nothing has changed.

I have known many people who assumed that as it's over-the-counter that no such thing as an overdose is possible. A friend of mine lost his sister to this chemical. Be very careful.

[soundoffear]

I think everyone is aware that Paracetamol/Tylenol has its dangers but half a tablet over the recommended dosage can be lethal??!
Girl in the article, ( taking no other medication )

1 tablet = 500mg paracetamol

Day 1, 8 Tablets - ( recommended max - 8 tablets ) - still has flu, poor girl.
Day 2, 8 1/2 Tablets - ( recommended max - 8 tablets ) - liver failure and death.


That sounds crazy to me, even if the girl in the article was overly susceptive to it, it still seems very very dodgy.

Like i was saying AWKA doing CWE's should take extreme note of the above article.

[snapper]

SWIM thinks this stuff is evil. Having helped treat overdoses, SWIM knows that they are very hard to control once the paracetamol starts to be metabolized, and liver failure once it has set in is often irreversible. Once the damage is done the only option left is to salvage, and if there is < 10% liver function, you're likely f&*ed unless someone has a spare liver. Very safe at recommended doses, but overshoot a little and it becomes a huge problem.
SWIM uses only ibuprofen as a painkiller, and/or aspirin as an antipyretic. SWIM will take the ulcers over the liver DZ anyday! SWIM also CWE's all narcotics where it is an additive - usually when used at recommended doses as painkiller, since SWIM gave up on recreational opiate use years ago.

[welshmick]

must be easy to kill u self with this stuff, don't do it

[Bajeda]

It is the most common cause of acute liver failure so far as pharmaceuticals go, accounting for 41% of adult cases in the US.

Not sure about death rate from this substance, but I'm sure that chronic alcohol abuse combined with excessive APAP use has caused plenty of people substantial liver damage.

[Heretic.Ape.]

please include the text of articles, links die over time.

A flu sufferer died after accid*entally overdosing on paracetamol by just half a tablet, an inquest heard.
Deborah Robinson suffered liver and kidney failure after taking sixteen-and-a-half pills in two days.
The 37-year-old, who had not been taking any other over-the-counter remedies, sought help after realising the mistake but died five days later.

Doctors recommend that no more than eight tablets should be taken within 24 hours. 'If you're in pain and reaching for the tablets, you can reach your limit in 24 hours without realising it,' said Anne Joshua, NHS Direct chief pharmacist.
Mrs Robinson, who worked in a chemist's shop, realised she had overdosed and went to hospital near her home in Co Londonderry on February 20.
She was sent to King's College Hospital in London and, at first, appeared to be getting better.
But, acc*ording to her husband, Martin, she 'started getting very distressed, she couldn't get her breath'.
He told Southwark Coroner's Court: 'She was very brave and very scared.'
Doctors were unable to get enough oxygen into her bloodstream and she died on February 25.
Ms Joshua said there were no plans to reduce the recommended dose. But she warned: 'Overdosing on paracetamol is extremely easy to do without noticing.'
Last year, model Laura Bates, 19, needed an emergency liver transplant after accidentally overdosing on Lemsip.
Advisory body the Commission on Human Medicines said: 'Unfortunately, there is no medication that is 100 per cent safe.

[Stephenwolf]

you'd think ibuprofen would have taken over by now... its significantly less toxic and in studies has been found to be either as or more effective than paracetamol.

[Panthers007]

The main obstacle to ibuprofen is that it can cause stomach problems similar to aspirin. Not to everyone - but a significant percentage.

[snapper]

ibuprofen is a better analgesic than acetominophen, but acetominophen is the best antipyretic of the antiinflammatories.
Ibuprofen when used regularly has a 70% chance of causing some gastrointestinal ulceration, but it is far kinder to the liver. Side effects of large overdoses are ulcers which can lead to GI perforations and peritonitis. Very large doses cause kidney failure.
SWIM's pain reliever of choice has always been ibuprofen.

[purplehaze]

Who's doing a CWE on Tylenol? And WHY?

[soundoffear]

The stronger OTC painkillers in the UK come with around 12.6 mg of codine usually mixed with around 500mg of Paracetamol/Tylenol(acetaminophen).

Reputation Comments on this post:

Thanks for the info.

[purplehaze]

Originally Posted by soundoffear

The stronger OTC painkillers in the UK come with around 12.6 mg of codine usually mixed with around 500mg of Paracetamol/Tylenol(acetaminophen).

Thanks, I was unaware of this. In the U.S. We can't buy codeine OTC. We just get the death chemical acetaminophen.

[cra$h]

swim's scared of acetomenophine. swim would take it for a headache, the recomended dose, and would get a stomache ache, so swim would be going through a thousand tums. for swim it's like picking the lesser of 2 evils, and considering the damage it does to your liver, it's not even worth the shit of a dog.

[cra$h]

I don't even think codeine is perscribed at all in the states. just oxy/hydrocodone, but not strait codeine.

[Panthers007]

Yes - straight codeine exists in the USA. Comes in tablets of all strengths up to the maximum prescribed dosage of 60mg. Generally found as the phosphate salt. Sometimes as the sulfate. And free base is found in some cough-syrups.

[Bajeda]

Yes, a certain panda has been prescribed codeine cough syrup many a time with no difficulty when he needed it. No extra additives.