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Thread: acetaminophen overdose?

  1. #1
    exotisch23
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    Default acetaminophen overdose?

    I've been taking Tylenol (500 mg. acetaminophen) and midol (same amount) all day and hadn't realized that I've already taken more than the recommended daily amount for 24 hours. How worried should I be? I don't seem to have any symptoms of an overdose but I'm not even sure what to look out for. Advice, anyone??

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    God/dess greenidlady1's Avatar
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    Default Re: acetaminophen overdose?

    It's difficult to overdose on Tylenol. It's worse on your liver than anything. How many are you taking?

  3. #3
    exotisch23
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    Default Re: acetaminophen overdose?

    Since 4pm yesterday (thursday), I've taken 9 extra strength tylenol's, and 3 midols..

    I did contact poison control and they said I should be fine unless I had a history of anorexia or alcoholism (which I don't).

    Liver failure is what I'm worried about, every month I overdose on pain killers because my cramps are so horrible. I need to get some prescription stuff asap!

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    God/dess greenidlady1's Avatar
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    Default Re: acetaminophen overdose?

    Try Advil, it's a lot better for pain than Tylenol or Midol. Tylenol is best used to reduce a fever. Midol is a mixture of meds, diuretic and pain reliever. Get the Advil gel caps 200mg. You can safely take 3 200mg at a time and that should definately knock the pain out for a few hours. As long as you don't have stomach ulcers or bleeding the Advil shouldn't hurt you at all.

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    Veteran Member boxingdoc's Avatar
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    Default Re: acetaminophen overdose?

    Actually, it is very easy to overdose on tylenol because it is in so many different OTC medications and it can cause fatal liver failure. You didn't mention the strength of midol you were taking. I assumed extra strength in calculating your dose. In all, you probably took 6000 mg of tylenol in one day. Max daily dose should be 4000 mg. A single dose of 7000 mg is considered toxic. That is 12 extra strength tylenol. I guess that you probably spread your doses over the course of the day. You should be OK, but I recommend avoiding anything with tylenol in it for the next week. You should also avoid alcohol to give your liver a rest.


    More info here:
    http://www.emedicine.com/emerg/topic819.htm
    Last edited by boxingdoc; 01-12-2007 at 08:00 AM. Reason: add link

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    God/dess Sirona's Avatar
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    Default Re: acetaminophen overdose?

    Quote Originally Posted by boxingdoc View Post
    Actually, it is very easy to overdose on tylenol because it is in so many different OTC medications and it can cause fatal liver failure.
    Scarey how many folks don't know that.



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    Default Re: acetaminophen overdose?

    pain pills do not even help with period cramps as much as anti inflammatory drugs do. if u have insurance (or even if u dont) its worth getting anti inflammatory drugs and using them when u need to (at the first sign of ur period before the pain starts) it would be cheaper anyway than buying perks or vic etc. u didnt od but if ur worried about it just dont take so much next time. oh and pain pills also have tylenol in them!! so be careful of how many of those u take - they are more dangerous than midol or tylenol and can get u high as well....

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    Default Re: acetaminophen overdose?

    Yeah - acetaminophen/paracetamol can seriously damage your liver, but it's in everything, with little warning as to how close the range is between the therapeutic dose and the damage-your-liver dose. General rule, as mentioned by boxingdoc, is that you shouldn't go over 4g/day. See the wikipedia article on acetaminophen, it's fairly description.

    This, in a world where it's almost impossible to get anything containing more than a hint of codeine without begging a doctor for it (max I can get non-prescription is 8 mg codeine + 300 mg acetaminophen + caffeine combinations, and apparently we here have one of the more "liberal" codeine non-prescription availability regimes). Although you can get addicted to codeine, it's arguably less dangerous in that you're unlikely to poison yourself with it accidentally like you can with Tylenol + something else that contains acetaminophen at the same time.

    All this because I end up having to use codeine once in a while: the acetaminophen+codeine+caffeine combos work fairly well when I have pain, though I end up needing prescription acetaminophen+codeine combos for nighttime use (guess what the caffeine does otherwise?). The combination, even at low codeine doses, works wonders for just about any pain I have. Codeine also stops excessive night-time coughing after a flu, which is usually why I end up using it.

    Maybe some people are more prone to additiction than I am: I've taken several supposedly addictive substances for several weeks at a time, but I've never had weird effects upon stopping. I guess it might be different for others.

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