Supra-therapeutic amounts of paracetamol are given to at least 4% of adult inpatients a review by Dr Li Zhou at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, and published in the journal Archives of Internal Medicine.
Paracetamol is one of the most widely used medications for relieving pain and reducing fever, but it is also the most common cause of acute liver failure.
In the study
- About 6.6% of all hospitalized adults were given in excess of 4 g/day.
- The recommended limit of 3 g/day was exceeded by 22.3% of patients 65 years or older and 17.6% of patients with chronic liver disease.
- Half of the occurrences of supratherapeutic dosing were at least 5 g/day.
- Forty percent of patients were given supratherapeutic dosing for at least 3 days and 4.0% for at least 10 days.
- Osteoarthritis was associated with an increased likelihood of supratherapeutic dosing
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