All medications have side effects. It is therefore important to review them frequently in case they need to be included in the prospectus. There are alert systems that notify healthcare providers themselves when a patient reports a rare side effect. However, there are also studies, such as one that was just conducted on side effects of paracetamol.
It was carried out by a group of scientists from NIHR Biomedical Research Institute. To do this, they analyzed cases of patients in the United Kingdom who were given free prescriptions for drugs. acetaminophen (paracetamol) at least twice within six months. This does not take into account specific cases in which, for example, a treatment regimen for a cold or specific pain is prescribed. If someone needs two boxes in six months, it’s usually because they take them regularly.
It is important to keep in mind that in the UK these free prescriptions are only given to people. over 65 years old. Other people can purchase it in pharmacies freely, but for a fee. This was not taken into account in the study, so it is unknown whether the results apply to the entire population or just older people. However, they found that the side effects of paracetamol may be greater than previously thought when taken regularly for chronic conditions.
Side effects of paracetamol
If the required dose of paracetamol is exceeded liver failure potentially fatal. This does not occur at the doses in which it is prescribed. However, side effects such as nausea, vomiting, epigastric pain, drowsiness, jaundice, hemolytic anemia, skin rash, or changes in the levels of certain cells in the body may occur. immune system.
Typically, these side effects of paracetamol are rare and are clearly marked on the package insert, as with any medicine. The problem is that what this recent study found very different.
For this purpose, data from 180,483 paracetamol users and 402,478 non-paracetamol users. the specified drug. When tracking these patients’ hospital visits for a variety of reasons, a striking pattern was discovered. Paracetamol was associated with an increased risk of lower gastrointestinal bleeding (36%), ulcer bleeding (24%), uncomplicated peptic ulcers (20%), chronic renal failure (19%), cardiac (9%) and high blood pressure. pressure (7%).
So what now?
There is currently a link between regular use of paracetamol and these side effects, but the cause has not been established. Therefore, we cannot be sure that this is not a coincidence. It needs to continue to be studied, so the first thing we, as patients, need to take into account is don’t give up treatment prescribed by our doctor only because it contains this drug.
Yes, of course we can talk to him about our problems. In any case, the authors of this study recommend assessing each case and determining whether people over 65 years of age have chronic diseases, such as osteoarthritis Other pain medications may also help them. Otherwise, as with any other medicine, it should be follow up.
All this does not mean that the side effects of paracetamol are something fixed and very dangerous for any elderly person. There’s just one more line to learn and another reason to be careful. With caution, but without fear.
Source: Hiper Textual
