Popular painkiller can be deadly even in small overdoses
November 23, 2011 11:40 AM 
(Credit: istockphoto) (CBS) Ever exceed the dosage on over-the-counter painkillers? Watch out - new research from Scotland shows that taking too much parcetamol (known as acetaminophen in this country) can be deadly.
"They haven't taken the sort of single-moment, one-off massive overdoses taken by people who try to commit suicide, but over time the damage builds up, and the effect can be fatal," study author Dr. Kenneth Simpson, a senior lecturer at Edinburgh University, said in a written statement.
For the study, published in the Nov. 22 issue of the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, Simpson's team analyzed 663 Scottish patients who had been admitted to the hospital with paracetamol-induced liver damage between 1992 and 2008. They found 161 of these patients had so-called "staggered overdoses," usually to relieve common pains like head, tooth, and muscle aches.
Simpson said these staggered overdose patients were more likely to have liver and brain problems, require kidney dialysis, more likely to need a liver transplant - and at a greater risk to die. The researchers found that 37 percent of patients with staggered overdoses died, compared with 28 percent who died from a single overdose.
"The problem is also worse for people who arrive at hospital more than a day after taking an overdose - they are also at high risk of dying or needing a liver transplant," says Simpson.
Just how many extra pills are we talking?
The average staggered overdose was 48 tablets. In some cases, patients had taken two large doses within a 24-hour period. In others they just had two or three extra pills over the course of four or five days, Simpson told The Telegraph.
The study "sheds light on the fact that the maximum recommended daily dose should be strictly adhered to," Dr. Joshua Lenchus, an associate professor of clinical medicine at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, told MSNBC.
WebMD has more on paracetamol.
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504763_162-57330403-10391704/popular-painkiller-can-be-deadly-even-in-small-overdoses/
