Survival after an overdose of Distalgesic (dextropropoxyphene and paracetamol).

The combination of dextropropoxyphene and paracetamol, marketed as Distalgesic, once a popular analgesic, is now less commonly prescribed. Each tablet contains 32-5mg of dextropropoxyphene and 325mg of paracetamol. Overdoses with this preparation were common in the late seventies, though nowadays are rarely seen. ' Overdoses of as little as twenty tablets very often led to death within thirty minutes.2 We report the case of a young man who survived an overdose of one hundred and twenty tablets.