Beware of Paracetamol Toxicity

Abstract

The Effect of Paracetamol mechanism by which it works, metabolism, recommended doses, toxic dosage are discussed with study reports in this paper. Paracetamol shows some life threatening effects like Liver damage which in turn leads to live failure and death. Though it reduces fever and pain, it is found highly toxic. The mechanism by which Paracetamol reduces fever and pain is still not known. On metabolism, Paracetamol is converted to a metabolite which is very toxic to liver cells. In recommended doses (1-2 g/day), Paracetamol does not irritate stomach lining, kidney cells and liver cells. Studies reported that high dosage (>2 g/day), resulted in Gastrointestinal complications, abnormal Kidney function, Liver damage.

In-vitro evaluation of the pharmacological and therapeutic equivalence of some acetaminophen trademarks

“…The initial symptoms of hepatotoxicity are nausea, vomiting, and abdominal pain (Paracetamol, n.d.). Yellow discoloration could also be observed in the eyes and skin (Vidhya Malar and Mettilda Bai, 2012). Alcohol consumption with acetaminophen should be avoided since this combination increases the risk of hepatoxicity for both (Prescott, 2000).…”

Exploration of DFT and TD-DFT computation to investigate the interaction between paracetamol and lithium or its compounds

“…Even at slightly higher dosages, liver failure has been documented. Further, the overdose of paracetamol also causes liver damage in humans [4] , [5] , [6] , [7] , [8] . Various research works are reported for the complex formation between the metal ions and paracetamol [9] , [10] , [11] , [12] .…”

Quality analysis of different marketed brands of paracetamol available in Bangladesh

“…Paracetamol or acetaminophen is one of them which we generally use to treat headache, fever and certain pains. N-acetyl-para-aminophenol is the chemical name of this drug (Vidhya and Bai, 2012;Jóźwiak-Bebenista and Nowak, 2014). Paracetamol is commonly used for its antipyretic and analgesic activities (Chun et al, 2009).…”

“…Paracetamol is extensively metabolized by the liver and approximately 90% is eliminated in the urine mainly as sulphate and glucuronide conjugates. A small fraction (<5%) of paracetamol is excreted as unchanged form (Bertolini et al, 2006;Vidhya and Bai, 2012). Hepatotoxicity due to paracetamol overdose leads to liver injury and is also a common cause of poisoning worldwide.…”

“…Increased paracetamol toxicity may develop hepatic encephalopathy. Moreover, large doses of this drug also promote the risk of upper gastrointestinal complications like stomach bleeding (Vidhya and Bai, 2012). Kidney is the second target organ of paracetamol toxicity (Bertolini et al, 2006).…”