People who take Tylenol and other medicines that contain
acetaminophen are largely ignorant of the safe dosages and unaware that
an overdose can cause severe liver damage. The article of a survey
appears in the January/February issue of The Journal of the American
Pharmacists Association has found out of 104 consecutive patients at a
Michigan clinic, almost 80 percent reported using acetaminophen in the
previous six months, but about 63 percent were unsure whether they had
been told about the dangers of high doses. Only 43 percent knew that
the medicine could affect liver function. Studies cited in the article
report that overdoses of acetaminophen are the most common cause of
acute liver failure in the United States. According to Medicinenet.com,
Americans take over 8 billion pills (tablets or capsules) of Tylenol
each year. The National Hospital Discharge Survey (NHDS) indicates that
there are an average of 26,256 hospitalizations per year related to
acetaminophen overdoses.
NCBI Pub Med, a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine
and the National Institutes of Health, reports that acetaminophen (APAP)
is the most common drug overdose in pregnancy. APAP has been
demonstrated to cross the placenta. Fetal hepatocytes metabolize APAP
into both active and toxic metabolites. These toxic metabolites may
cause fetal hepatic necrosis, resulting in morbidity and mortality.
