Posted by ed_uk on March 10, 2005, at 10:07:07
In reply to Re: cold meds and anxiety, posted by med_empowered on March 10, 2005, at 5:59:33
Hi,
>I despise Tylenol b/c of its effects on the liver.
Acetaminophen, at recommended doses, has an excellent safety record. It is one of the best tolerated drugs of all time. Liver damage at therapeutic doses is exceptionally rare. Other serious side effects are also exceptional and it is associated with very few drug interactions.
In contrast, in the US, thousands of people every year experience life-threatening side effects from NSAIDs (ibuprofen etc) and aspirin. Gastro-intestinal haemorrhage may occur. Other side effects such as renal failure are a particular risk to the elderly. Also, NSAIDs are implicated in numerous important drug interactions. Despite this, the NSAIDs are a very useful and important class of drugs, but their safety record is poor compared to acetaminophen.
It is well known that acetaminophen is very dangerous in overdose, I do not need to emphasise this. Surely you wouldn't OD on Tylenol if you had a cold though! You are clearly very intelligent and I'm sure you'd stick to the recommended dose. It is not at all correct to assume that a drug which is dangerous in overdose is therefore dangerous at recommended doses. Drugs such as ibuprofen, while not particularly dangerous in overdose often cause serious side effects in the long-term. Rarely, ibuprofen causes serious side effects after only a few doses. Ibuprofen also has many more contra-indications than acetaminophen. Acetaminophen is a much maligned drug. Even if you search the journals you'll only find a few cases of serious side effects in people who took prescribed doses.
From PubMed...
'On average 1 in 1200 patients taking NSAIDs for at least 2 months will die from gastroduodenal complications who would not have died had they not taken NSAIDs. This extrapolates to about 2000 deaths each year in the UK.' .......That's in the UK, which has a much smaller population that the USA.
With very rare exceptions, the only people who die due to acetaminophen are people who overdose OR people who were taking acetaminophen despite the fact that it was contra-indicated eg. in severe malnutrition.
Best regards,
Ed.
poster:ed_uk
thread:469091
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20050308/msgs/469187.html