OBJECTIVES To examine the incidence of suicides due to co-proxamol compared with tricyclic antidepressants and paracetamol, and to compare fatality rates for self poisonings with these drugs. DESIGN Analysis of routinely collected national and local data on suicides and self poisonings. SETTING Records of suicides in England and Wales 1997-9; non-fatal self poisonings in Oxford District 199...

Mr B first presented to an Accident and Emergency department in Bristol, having taken an overdose of fifty paracetamol tablets. He had became depressed over a period of six months, with biological features, including weight loss of two stones. There were no obvious precipitants. He was offered admission, but refused. Subsequently he was started on dothiepin and referred to outpatients. Further ...

Background: N-acetyl-p-aminophenol (APAP) or paracetamol overdose causes increasing of toxic metabolites, which disrupting hepatocyte function, and liver injury occurs. Curcumin has been used for treatment of inflammatory conditions such as hepatitis. Therefore, this study aims to determine effects of curcumin attenuate hepatitis in mice with APAP overdose. Methods: Male mice (25-30 gram) were ...

BACKGROUND Activated charcoal (AC) is commonly used for the routine management of oral drug overdose. AIM To determine whether the routine use of activated charcoal has an effect on patient outcomes. DESIGN Randomized controlled unblinded trial. METHODS We recruited all adult patients presenting with an oral overdose at The Canberra Hospital, excluding only transfers, late presenters, tho...

AIM To investigate the factors associated with adverse clinical features presented by drug overdose/self-poisoning patients and the treatments provided. METHODS Historical patient records collected over 3 months from ambulance crews attending non-fatal overdoses/self-poisoning incidents were reviewed. Logistic regression was used to investigate predictors of adverse clinical features (reduced...

Acetaminophen (paracetamol) is the most frequently used analgesic and antipyretic drug available over the counter. At the same time, acetaminophen overdose is the most common cause of acute liver failure and the leading cause of chronic liver damage requiring liver transplantation in developed countries. Acetaminophen overdose causes a multitude of interrelated biochemical reactions in hepatocy...

P ublic health interventions are usually implemented without any attempt to prospectively evaluate them with an experimental research design. Thus the only way to evaluate the outcome of the intervention is to describe what happened before and after its implementation. In a new study published in PLoS Medicine, Morgan et al. have examined the change in deaths attributed to paracetamol (acetamin...

Background Vitamin K antagonists are widely used in the treatment and prevention of thromboembolic disease. However, these drugs can cause serious side effects, especially bleeding. This study aims to evaluate frequency and risk factors of both bleeding and asymptomatic overdose in North African patients undergoing Vitamin K antagonist therapy. Methods We performed a cross-sectional study in ...