American here: I know paracetamol is acetaminophen, but how much is a packet?
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paracetamol packet
It looks like it's a sheet of 6-8 pills
https://www.nps.org.au/news/paracetamol-ibuprofen-combinations-for-acute-pain
according to the acetaminophen i've got at home, dangerous dosage is >4g per day. that means that if 4 packets was 20x that, each packet would be 20g, which, if they're normal 500mg pills, would be 40 pills per packet.
Various countries limit painkillers to small packet sizes (e.g. 20 pills here in Germany) and pharmacies only hand them out one at a time, so you can't overdose as easily/spontaneously, either like the person in the post did due to pain, or for suicidal purposes.
It's not perfect protection, as you can just go to multiple pharmacies to buy multiple packets, but yeah, you will have to actually go do that and will get told at the pharmacy that you shouldn't take more, if you're not aware.
Yikes! The use of the term "packet" was initially confusing to me. Here in the States it's not uncommon to see small packets of a single dose of over the counter medicines in gas stations and convenience stores for when you're not at home and something comes up. The directions for extra strength Tylenol are 2 every 6hrs (1000mg dose) not exceeding 3 doses per day.
I was thinking "4 packets over 3 days, what's the big deal?"
Worth noting as well that the OP said four packs a day for three days.
That guys a moron. The bottles are very very clear not to take more than the recommended dosage. Its labeled all over the bottle.
I'm kind of pissed that such obvious and preventable idiocy leads to an almost immediate liver transplant.
Yes, that's just a lucky coincidence for him, but still...
Not "even paracetamol". ESPECIALLY paracetamol.
Tylenol/acetaminophen/paracetamol is both weak ass painkiller and really dangerous because the overdose line is low. Here they put it in synthetic opioid drugs, it doesn't help with pain but does make them more dangerous.
PSA: stupidity is dangerous
Yeah, how long until this idiot cooks this liver too?
Honestly, getting a liver transplant in a week is the most unbelievable part of this story.
Happened to me. It was actually 6 days. Listed on a Friday, transplant was done the following Wednesday.
It's bizarre to me that someone can make it to adulthood without knowing that paracetamol specifically is no fucking joke.
People look up resources on them and see that the recommended max dose of ibuprofen is lower than paracetamol per day in weight of the active ingredient and stop reading.
They don't get to the part about how the effect per weight isn't the same. Or how damaging paracetamol can be for the liver if you take it regularly or go over the recommend limit. Heavy drinkers especially don't take into account the extra stress on their liver, which is a contributor to the 400-500 deaths it causes every year in the US alone.
Meanwhile ibuprofen makes you feel sick and want to vomit once you start to go over the recommended limit. And if you reach that stage, you basically just stay hydrated to keep your kidneys going and wait for it to pass. Since it usually takes another 2-3 times as much to for the severe effects to occur.
To quote Scrubs:
Dr. Cox: Did you just page me to ask me how much ibuprofen to give Mrs. Lenzner here?
Sunny: Well, I was worried it would exacerbate the patient's
Dr. Cox: It's ibuprofen! Here's what you do. When she wakes up, get her to open her mouth nice and wide, then get some of those ibuprofen pills in your hands and throw them at her. Whatever sticks in there, that's the correct dosage.
I mean this is just dumb. Like I’m sorry but this would happen with basically every medicine or drug. They aren’t made to be taken at higher doses than advised.
(Imagine you took 8 liters of beer per day for 3 days, you’d be half dead too.)
Moderation people…
You haven't seen the ridiculous quantities that some alcoholics will consume
Tolerance is a different beast. But 8 liters of beer is ridiculous.
Humans drink 2-3 liters a day. Of water.
You know what else is stupid? Pain management in the US. I get that you need to be careful about addiction, but the idea that people should have to suffer pain because we're having a pain medication "reefer madness" spasm is idiocy.
The guy just kept taking them until his teeth stopped hurting. Why is the alternative that he just has to put up with being in pain?
The fact that the drug companies lied about the addictiveness of their product so doctors were handing them out like candy didn't help.
Is this real? Who gets a liver donor in 4 days?
The liver damage is very believable but a liver transplant after 4 days is absurd.
He's not the first one to 'kill his liver' with paracetamol/ acetominophen (tylenol). First case I recall, the person was taking tylenol nightly with a glass of wine. Here's some links on the current understanding of Liver injury and paracetamol:
Apparently it's not always overdosing: Paracetamol-induced hepatotoxicity at recommended dosage (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1046/j.1365-2796.2003.01097.x)
Acetaminophen-Induced Hepatotoxicity: a Comprehensive Update (https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4913076/) "...in the United States, in particular, it accounts for more than 50% of overdose-related acute liver failure and approximately 20% of the liver transplant cases."
Risk Factors for Hepatotoxicity Due to Paracetamol Overdose in Adults (https://www.mdpi.com/1648-9144/57/8/752) "In the univariable analysis, significant hepatotoxicity risk factors were male gender, alcohol abuse, an ingested paracetamol dose, and a timespan from ingestion to hospital admission. The later one was the only significant risk factor in the multivariable model (adjusted odds ratio 1.08; 95% CI: 1.03–1.12)."
Paracetamol (acetaminophen) overdose and hepatotoxicity: mechanism, treatment, prevention measures, and estimates of burden of disease (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37436926/) "Where data were available, we estimate that paracetamol is involved in 6% of poisonings, 56% of severe acute liver injury and acute liver failure, and 7% of drug-induced liver injury."
Understanding paracetamol-induced liver failure (https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00134-014-3293-9)
I think what's extra dangerous about Tylenol is that it doesnt feel like it's doing anything. When it works, some minor pain goes away, or maybe your fever goes down. But there's no side effects that you really feel, so I bet people get a false sense of security with it. Like, oh it isn't giving me opioid euphoria, or knocking me out. And you can just buy as much as you want, no restrictions. It must be perfectly safe.
I think paracetamol/acetaminophen being barely perceptible is why I'll always feel safer with opioids, THC, or even NMDA antagonists like ketamine in a pinch--as someone who is extremely informed with this particular subject.
I blame autism.
If a compound is barely effective, causes liver damage (particularly with other compounds metabolised in the liver), and has a bunch of negative interactions.. sorry, it's garbage. I genuinely would rather go darknet than CVS or Walgreens, and test for purity. Besides, dealers are generally way cooler than corpos anyway.
I hope that nobody takes it as an invitation, though--I said I'm informed. If you're not informed, don't.
I will add this; Paracetamol? Almost placebo. Phenylephrine? Actually placebo. Guaifenesin? Placebo if taken orally. Practically the entire counter is placebo, except for the antihistamines (first/second generation like diphenhydramine/Benadryl and cetirizine/Zyrtec) and nasal cleaners and such. With that in mind, I would encourage people to research absolutely everything they ingest, regardless of how safe the product may seem.
They are certainly not 100% safe.
This should go without saying (probably preaching to a choir), but legal ≠ safe, indeed. Still waiting on that thesaurus to prove me wrong. It's been 3 years.
Stay smart, and stay safe.
There is a brand mixing acetylsalicylic acid and koffein which works wonders as a quick relief for migraine while my standard naproxen usually requires a few hours of darkness to start working, so I can't agree that all over the counter meds are garbage. I can't refute your placebo claims since the effect cant be measured by myself
Shoot, I forgot aspirin! It actually is a genuinely effective painkiller. Mixed with caffeine, and you pretty much have Excedrin. My mother has very bad migraines, and it is true that this formula just works, for some reason.
Excedrin is a good product. If you have a migraine, I'd suggest taking it. I will add that my mother seems addicted to it, though--taking it on the daily multiple times, even if a headache is mild.
Be careful!
It's people like this who make other people think any amount of painkillers is bad, and seem to get a sense of superiority about them for never taking any.
Sounds like American healthcare to me.
You either cope, and probably cause irreparable hard to yourself, or you go to the clinic or ER and get labeled a drug seeker.
Americans don't call it paracematol, they call it acetaminophen or just tylenol. This is from the UK.
I mean... Yeah. There are instructions on the packet. They aren't supposed to be eaten like candy.
It's why in the UK shops won't sell more than 2 packets at a time. It's statistically reduced the amount of people killing themselves with them (intentionally or by mistake).
Everyone's discussing ODing on OTC pain meds but the bigger part of this story is why he's in so much pain for so long without being able to see a Dr and receive treatment for chronic pain.
My brother in Christ, the paracetamol box LITERALLY says to never go more than 4 grams (4000 mg) in a 24hs period on any mg pills presentation
And as far as I see, that's a general rule with everything. Even those caramels for sore throat or reflux pills, where you'd need to eat thousands in a day to overdose, say the same
Don't fuck with medicine dudes