The FDA had an advisory panel on acetaminophen today recommend, among other things, putting a black box warning on acetaminophen products in order to reduce deaths from liver failure. While the FDA has a large ranging and difficult job in protecting the health of the American people, I believe that there are places where we can probably draw the line. There are people who die due to liver failure from taking too much acetaminophen, but the problem they are indicating is with prescription combination products such as Vicodin and Percocet. The likelihood of dying from an overdose on one of these medications is probably in favor of death from respiratory arrest or cardiac failure due to the narcotics being abused rather than liver failure from acetaminophen. Yes, it is easy to overdose on the acetaminophen with these products if you are abusing them and not taking them according to the prescribed dosages, but the intentional abuse of the narcotic substances and combining them with other narcotics and/or depressants such as alcohol is a larger issue which is being ignored and skirted by the FDA.
Let us also look at the recommendations given for over the counter acetaminophen products. The recommendation for maximum dose is being changed to 650mg. The common version of extra strength acetaminophen is 500mg. Most people take at least 2 of them, I know that some people just take a handful. While I believe that people
should have more respect than they do for OTC products and still consider them medication and chemicals that affect changes in the body, I don't think that will occur because of this FDA panel. I also don't think that people will change the way they take acetaminophen after taking it for a lifetime at a higher dosage.
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