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sunglocto @lemmy.dbzer0.com

PSA: Don't take 4 packets of paracetamol in one day

244 comments
  • In the US, the FDA tried to limit how strong the individual capsules can be (325mg), but you can still buy it in 500mg strength. There are mandatory warnings on the label, but you can buy it in 500-tablet (at 325 or 500) bottles over the counter. It took almost 60 years before the FDA did anything, so a lot of people grew up thinking it was harmless.

  • I had intense tummy aches for 15 days where I couldn't walk and needed to keep heat to my belly to even function, once my pain killers didn't work, I didn't push it, I just tried to handle the pain

    I cried a lot in that time, it fucking sucked, but it sure was better than liver failure.

    1. don't be an idiot and 2) read the leaflet

    Sounds like a messaging problem, despite the idiocy (or rather, because idiocy is the default). Like, I'm not silly enough to eat 4 boxes of paracetamol a day, but I've also read maybe 3 medication leaflets in my entire life, and I've been on literally dozens of antidepressants and antianxiety meds. I basically scan over the leaflet to see what sort of dick problems I can expect 😆

    It's like the Terms of Service of an iTunes update. No cunt is reading that shit. People just know "i make click i get music", and "i swallow lump of chalk i feel better".

    The leaflets aren't even written for laypeople to really understand them. Besides being in a 1pt font, they're written in something bordering on legalese but with medical terms. "Contraindications"?? The fuck am I, Beatrice Pharmacist the inventor of pharmacism? I don't blame people for getting 2 sentences in and giving up.

    That said, the dosage is on the front of the box, and that should be enough for even the most imbecilic person. But if you lose the box and just have loose blister packs lying around for a year, you might go off the rails a little when the tooth pain kicks in.

    It's also the case that something as "basic" as paracetamol being such a widespread and easy-to-buy medication causes a strange lack of respect for its potential danger. Like "pop a pill when you have a headache" is so second nature to us. It becomes a non-threatening intervention that only becomes less threatening the older you get, because it's just... there. So you don't even feel the need to check the leaflet for side effects and such, because it's 'part of the furniture' of our lives. This is the messaging problem I alluded to. You really gotta think about the dumbest person alive, and then aim for someone twice as dumb as that.

244 comments