Health professionals need to recognise and rapidly treat patients who repeatedly take ‘staggered overdoses’ of paracetamol over time and are at risk of liver failure or death, experts say.
A Scottish study found patients who repeatedly ingested slightly too much paracetamol over time had a greater risk of dying from liver and brain problems compared with people who have taken single overdoses.
Researchers led by Dr Kenneth Simpson, from the University of Edinburgh and the Scottish Liver Transplantation Unit in Scotland, found, of 663 patients who had been admitted to hospital with paracetamol-induced liver injuries, 161 had ingested a ‘staggered overdose’ commonly to relieve abdominal or muscular pains, headaches or toothaches.
“They haven’t taken the sort of single-moment, one-off, massive overdoses taken by people who...
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