Acetominaphin

[Spirit Unleashed]

Listening to This American Life.

You know tylenol can be dangerous. But did you know that a tiny overdose can kill you?

[DonnaRigs]

It's also dangerous to take it for a hangover.

[Jwolf]

Where it also becomes dangerous is when people take multiple medications for simple things like a cold. They might be taking Tylenol for pain and a cold remedy that also contains acetaminophen and not realize that they are over the daily limit.

[Spirit Unleashed]

JW, that is true. But people don't know that if you take more than 4 gms, you could die. Since many of us take more than the recommended dose of aspirin or IBU, we think the same overdose of tylenol is ok too. It is not.

[Jwolf]

JW, that is true. But people don't know that if you take more than 4 gms, you could die. Since many of us take more than the recommended dose of aspirin or IBU, we think the same overdose of tylenol is ok too. It is not.

I'm not disagreeing with you- but I'm just saying part of the problem is also that many people don't even know how much they are actually taking.

Even if you don't reach the lethal dose, you can doing serious liver damage at lower doses. Even double the recommended dose is dangerous and people might not realize they are hitting that.

Also, I might be wrong but I didn't think that the lethal dose was 4 g-- that sounds low. I thought that was closer to the maximum recommended dose ... anyway, I'll go listen to the podcast.

[jgore]

http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/820200-overview

Minimum toxic doses of acetaminophen for a single ingestion, posing significant risk of severe hepatotoxicity, are as follows:

Adults: 7.5-10 g
Children: 150 mg/kg; 200 mg/kg in healthy children aged 1-6 years

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency ... 002598.htm
You should not take more than 4000 mg of acetaminophen a day. Taking more, especially 7000 mg or more, can lead to a severe overdose if not treated.

[Kelodie]

When I hurt my tailbone (not sure if it was broken, the X-rays were crappy) a few years ago, the ER doctor gave me morphine and advised I take the maximum dose of Tylenol (4g) to manage the pain. I did for 2 days and then I started having crazy liver pain, so I switched to Ibuprofen and was alright. To this day, I can't take a Tylenol without getting the liver pain again.

[Spirit Unleashed]

JW, that is true. But people don't know that if you take more than 4 gms, you could die. Since many of us take more than the recommended dose of aspirin or IBU, we think the same overdose of tylenol is ok too. It is not.

I'm not disagreeing with you- but I'm just saying part of the problem is also that many people don't even know how much they are actually taking.

Even if you don't reach the lethal dose, you can doing serious liver damage at lower doses. Even double the recommended dose is dangerous and people might not realize they are hitting that.

Also, I might be wrong but I didn't think that the lethal dose was 4 g-- that sounds low. I thought that was closer to the maximum recommended dose ... anyway, I'll go listen to the podcast.

The program did mention that we are not aware of how many products contain acetaminophen nowadays; so overdosing is really easy. The 4g jgore quoted is what the show was saying.

[Jwolf]

Podcast isn't available for download until next week. I will definitely listen then.

[Jwolf]

JW, that is true. But people don't know that if you take more than 4 gms, you could die. Since many of us take more than the recommended dose of aspirin or IBU, we think the same overdose of tylenol is ok too. It is not.

I'm not disagreeing with you- but I'm just saying part of the problem is also that many people don't even know how much they are actually taking.

Even if you don't reach the lethal dose, you can doing serious liver damage at lower doses. Even double the recommended dose is dangerous and people might not realize they are hitting that.

Also, I might be wrong but I didn't think that the lethal dose was 4 g-- that sounds low. I thought that was closer to the maximum recommended dose ... anyway, I'll go listen to the podcast.

The program did mention that we are not aware of how many products contain acetaminophen nowadays; so overdosing is really easy. The 4g jgore quoted is what the show was saying.

"We" can be more aware.

Read labels and know your drugs. I'm always so frustrated when I hear people rattle off OTC concoctions they take without knowing what drugs they are ingesting. This is also important when you get prescription drugs and take them in combination with OTC drugs.

[Samantha]

JW, that is true. But people don't know that if you take more than 4 gms, you could die. Since many of us take more than the recommended dose of aspirin or IBU, we think the same overdose of tylenol is ok too. It is not.

I'm not disagreeing with you- but I'm just saying part of the problem is also that many people don't even know how much they are actually taking.

Even if you don't reach the lethal dose, you can doing serious liver damage at lower doses. Even double the recommended dose is dangerous and people might not realize they are hitting that.

Also, I might be wrong but I didn't think that the lethal dose was 4 g-- that sounds low. I thought that was closer to the maximum recommended dose ... anyway, I'll go listen to the podcast.

The program did mention that we are not aware of how many products contain acetaminophen nowadays; so overdosing is really easy. The 4g jgore quoted is what the show was saying.

"We" can be more aware.

Read labels and know your drugs. I'm always so frustrated when I hear people rattle off OTC concoctions they take without knowing what drugs they are ingesting. This is also important when you get prescription drugs and take them in combination with OTC drugs.

Me too!! Or ask a pharmacist!!! It drives me nuts when people pop OTC pain relievers like candy.

[Spirit Unleashed]

Yesterday, I filled a script for hydrocodone / acetaminophen. Today, they gave me another script. The nurse today said, ignore what the other bottle says, take one or two every 4 hours.

I said, that bottle says one every six hours (and has the 4 mg max dose warning). THEN, the nurse looked into the computer to see what that script was for. Yesterday's script was for a 10-x, today's was less than that. She said that 2 of those other pills would have been 20 mg (um.....5 times the max dose). So, had I not been educated prior to this little encounter and frightened enough of acetaminophen to straighten this out (even just awake from anesthesia) what shape would I be in now?

[Spirit Unleashed]

http://sciencebasedpharmacy.wordpress.c ... uld-trust/

[jgore]

Yesterday, I filled a script for hydrocodone / acetaminophen. Today, they gave me another script. The nurse today said, ignore what the other bottle says, take one or two every 4 hours.

I said, that bottle says one every six hours (and has the 4 mg max dose warning). THEN, the nurse looked into the computer to see what that script was for. Yesterday's script was for a 10-x, today's was less than that. She said that 2 of those other pills would have been 20 mg (um.....5 times the max dose). So, had I not been educated prior to this little encounter and frightened enough of acetaminophen to straighten this out (even just awake from anesthesia) what shape would I be in now?

Good thing you were wary of the nurse's recommendation. Everyone should look into the information available on any medication they have to take, especially now that it's so much easier to find. I've seen so many mistakes with medication involving people I know that I don't trust anything anymore.

[La]

http://sciencebasedpharmacy.wordpress.com/2013/10/10/is-acetaminophen-still-the-pain-reliever-you-should-trust/

I was just going to link to that blog post. The author is my friend, Scott (just saw him last weekend when I took some perennials out of his garden ).

Acetaminophen is unquestionably toxic in overdose, and potentially harmful at or above the maximum recommended dose. So does that mean that NSAIDs are always preferable? Not necessarily. Massive overdoses of anti-inflammatory drugs are, on balance, less harmful than acetaminophen. Deaths from acute overdose of NSAIDs are rare. What is more insidious and problematic with NSAIDs is the side effect profile I described above. What’s worse, NSAIDS have the potential to cause significant harm, even when dosed appropriately. The Propublica/TAL reports don’t elaborate on the full toxicity profile of the NSAIDs, which implies they are safer – a potentially misleading comparison. Comparing acetaminophen’s toxicity with NSAIDs isn’t an apples-to-apples comparison, and it can’t be quantified. Which is worse in overdose? Acetaminophen. What’s more likely to cause harm at normal doses? NSAIDs. Which is the safest for any given person? It depends.

[Spirit Unleashed]

The think I didn't know as I was being discharged, but learned when I looked at my bill, was that I had an acetaminophen injection. The injection was probably directly into my foot, but still I should have been told about due to the overdose risk.

[kab]

Yesterday, I filled a script for hydrocodone / acetaminophen. Today, they gave me another script. The nurse today said, ignore what the other bottle says, take one or two every 4 hours.

I said, that bottle says one every six hours (and has the 4 mg max dose warning). THEN, the nurse looked into the computer to see what that script was for. Yesterday's script was for a 10-x, today's was less than that. She said that 2 of those other pills would have been 20 mg (um.....5 times the max dose). So, had I not been educated prior to this little encounter and frightened enough of acetaminophen to straighten this out (even just awake from anesthesia) what shape would I be in now?

Had to do a double take there. The injection format is not available in Canada and I didn't know there even was such a beast.
The daily max dose is 4 grams (4000 mg). Most preparations contain 325 to 500 mg so 8 to 10 doses a day (alone or as part of a compound) is the max.
Where I work, we had a teenager OD on tylenol. It was basically a plea for help. That small overdose required a liver transplant. People think it is an innocuous drug. It isn't.