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Saturday, September 21, 2013

Acetaminophen/paracetamol/Tylenol

The FDA took over 40 years to finalize the monograph for acetaminophen. During which we eradicated small pox, decoded the human genome and cloned a sheep.

Acetaminophen also the most deadly OTC drug, with over 150 people dying each year in the USA alone. More than half are accidental overdoses, not suicides or longterm effects.

Acetaminophen alone kills more people per year than all prescription opioids COMBINED.

Infant oral solutions are actually 3x more potent than children's oral solutions because its terribly difficult to make children swallow medicine. Also the "infant" dose applies to children up to 3 years old. Imagine trying to keep this straight. Or, if a physician means children's but you buy infants because they didn't specify, you could overdose your child by a factor of 3, and that could kill them. This isn't just a hypothetical, it has happened.

Just things to think about when we self medicate or, for the health care providers, medicate your patients or, for parents, medicate our children.