Pill Popping Culture culture must stop.
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Nearly every household medicine cabinet contains a bottle of Tylenol or another acetaminophen-based painkiller, and if yours does you probably think of it as a pretty mild, safe cure for headaches or other routine pain. I know that I’ve always thought of acetaminophen as somehow safer than ibuprofen (the generic name for Advil and Motrin) since too much ibuprofen can lead to stomach bleeding.
But your stand-by acetaminophen can have some serious health consequences if you take too much of it or combine it with alcohol, because it’s toxic to the liver in high doses. People ODing on acetaminophen account for 56,000 emergency department visits, 1600 cases of acute liver failure and 458 deaths each year in the US.
One of the main reasons people OD on acetaminophen is that they don’t realize how many drugs, both OTC and prescription, contain it. So a person might simultaneously be taking a prescription painkiller and an over-the-counter cold remedy not realizing that both pack a powerful dose of acetaminophen, and overdo it as a result.
Related:
The FDA is warning about the dangers ofacetaminophen in popular prescription pain drugs, but did it go far enough?
Acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol, is found in a wide range of over-the-counter and prescription drugs. At normal doses, when not taken with alcohol, acetaminophen is a very safe drug. But it’s easy to take too much — a big mistake that can lead to serious liver damage.
Damage can occur when a person with normal liver function takes 4,000 milligrams or more of acetaminophen in a single day. That’s easy to do if a person is taking several medications and is not aware that each contains a powerful dose of acetaminophen.
The result: some 56,000 emergency-room visits, 26,000 hospitalizations, and 458 deaths a year. Acetaminophen is the leading cause of acute liver failure in the U.S., causing some 1,600 cases a year.
Now the FDA is taking two steps. Both affect only prescription drugs. The FDA action does not affect any medication sold over the counter. The FDA say that in three years:
- Prescription pain drugs can contain no more than 325 milligrams of acetaminophen per pill or spoonful. Currently, some of these drugs contain as much as 750 milligrams of acetaminophen.
- Prescription pain drugs will carry the FDA’s strongest “black box” warning label. That label will warn of the risk of serious liver injury.
- http://www.webmd.com/pain-management/news/20110113/fda-warns-of-acetaminophen-in-prescription-pain-drugs?src=RSS_PUBLIC
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