The Dark Side of Acetaminophen, and more: Tox on the Web

  The Dark Side of Acetaminophen: The Toronto Star has a long article this weekend about the hepatotoxicity of acetaminophen, both when taken in deliberate overdose as a suicidal gesture or attempt, or ingested in supra-therapeutic (or even therapeutic) doses.   It was put together with the help of the investigative unit ProPublica and goes over much of the material covered in the recent “This American Life” episode but with a Canadian twist. The piece states that a 2009 report “found a dozen cases in Health Canada’s adverse drug events database where people suffered liver injury or damage after taking acetaminophen for several days — despite taking doses below the daily limit.” I wish they had been a little clearer about what they meant by “liver injury or damage.” Was it merely a transient elevation of hepatic transaminase levels, or actual symptomatic effects? Dr. David Juurlink (@DavidJuurlink) was interviewed in the article, and does a good job of putting the problem in perspective, pointing out that alternative over-the-counter analgesics are not risk-free: Those drugs [ibuprofen and aspirin] have their own side effects and I would say they are much more likely to cause harm than acetaminophen. So the alternatives are almost certainly worse, even when taken as directed, than acetaminophen.   Reducing the threat of ethylene glycol: In her “Poison Pen” column in the New York Times, Deborah Blum (@deborah...
Source: The Poison Review - Category: Toxicology Authors: Tags: Medical acetaminophen amitriptyline cyclobenzaprine ethylene glycol hepatotoxicity nasal naloxone tox on the web Source Type: news