Superiority Complex

It's only semi autobiographical

Monday, February 05, 2007

Suicide is painless (Especially if you OD on 1500mg paracetamol)

Right. No excuses. I haven't Blogged in a while. As they say... what is the expression? 'That's life'.

Anyway, I have just had a minor disagreement. About drugs.

Now I, and the others involved in the discussion, have very different attitudes to mind altering chemicals. I, for one, drink rather more regularly and deeply that some might deem wise.

But today, the discussion was about paracetamol, specifically, Beechams.

Imagine the situation if you will... You are ill, feeling terrible, and you take paracetamol. about 3 hours later, someone turns up with Beechams, you know this will make you feel better, but wait... it has paracetamol in it!

... And it has only been 3 hours ...

...ish...

30 minutes pass... do you dare take the Beechams? Sure... it might not kill you... but what of the side effects???

I took the liberty of doing some research.

The 50% lethality level of one mass dose is 15G, or 30 tablets. Hospitals slash this to 26 tablets, to be safe. The pharmaceutical companies reduce this to 8 tablets on their literature, they obviously do not want litigation. Oh, and that is over 24 hours rather than one dose.

Now... if one has taken 2 tablets.... and 3 and a half hours later takes perhaps 500mg worth of paracetamol, that is about 1 tablet, do we really think there is a health risk? Actually, if you consider that if you were to just take the recommended dose, you would ingest 2000mg over 4 hours, and scale it back to 3 hours, that's 1500mg, exactly what you would end up taking with the Beechams. And by the time you worked that out, you would be well over the 3 hours you were worried about in the first place!

Ah, I hear you say, but what about other minor side effects? To which I reply with an incredulous look. You really think that at that dose, the side effects will be worse than the ILLNESS you are trying to cure?

Incidentally, it seems that one dose of 4000mg is likely to cause immediate side effects in most people. Which, coincidentally, is the recommended dose in a day on the packets of pills.

Anyway. I just found this intensely frustrating. Hearing someone complain of an illness, and then refuse to take medicine because they are worried about the side effects...

"My eye hurts!" "Well, stop putting vinegar in it then..." "But if I do that, and a wasp stings it, it would really hurt!" "Yeah but.... but.... never mind."

Now I'm tired, and I'm going to drink booze.

Posted by: Complex / 7:44 pm

Comments:

Heh, I get your point, although I tend to err on the side of caution. Although having said that if it hurts enough I certainly might take a pill a little earlier...

# posted by

Mr K : 7:53 pm

Well, I only ever take the recommended dose, but then if it's still giving me hell I won't think twice about taking something else just because it has some paracetamol content...

Crazy I tell you.

# posted by

Complex : 7:55 pm

haha was K the man who thought it better not to take the medicine? (no sides, curious)

# posted by

Imperium child : 5:09 pm

Ah Richard. How I miss your rants! I hear ya loud and clear on the pain killer front. If one more pill popping hippy tells me that they don't like taking paracetamol because it's "un-natural", I think I'll give them a chinese burn for their hypocrisy. Ha! Love love! xxx (PS: For anyone who should read this who doesn't know me very well, I have no problem with pill popping hippies in general. Only hypocrites.) Bex

# posted by

Anonymous : 10:58 pm

Typically, I avoid the dreaded paracetamol... the red cap alone on the bottle - says "no. I am bad for you. I will destroy your liver."

# posted by

pero : 6:43 am

I took 1500mg of paracetamol today because 100mg didnt even touch on the amount of pain this period is giving me!! Now I feel ill, but am thinking its probably a cold onth way! x

# posted by

Anonymous : 9:07 pm

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Monday, February 05, 2007

Suicide is painless (Especially if you OD on 1500mg paracetamol)