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by mulderc 387 days ago
My understanding is it isn’t so much people being idiots but that acetaminophen is in many products making it easy to overdose on when you are sick.

https://www.fda.gov/consumers/consumer-updates/dont-overuse-...

1 comments

Ah, I see,,, Wikipedia tells us:

“While a majority of adult overdoses are linked to suicide attempts, many cases are accidental, often due to the use of more than one paracetamol-containing product over an extended period.[106] […] Overdoses are frequently related to high-dose recreational use of prescription opioids, as these opioids are most often combined with paracetamol.[110] The overdose risk may be heightened by frequent consumption of alcohol.[111]“

So, combination drugs being used recreationally, yeah I guess I can believe that would lead to not keeping track of how much paracetamol you took today. And especially over time.

I figured it would be pretty hard to accidentally exceed 4000 mg in a day, but if you’re high on some stronger painkillers, which you’re developing some tolerance for, then it’s easy to just keeping taking more than you did last time.