What happens when you take 4 acetaminophens?

If you are in the habit of taking medicines that have not been prescribed by a doctor and the reason for your choice is the advice of others, you should know that the occurrence of disease symptoms is not the same in all people and the medicines do not have the same response for everyone.

According to Hamshahri Online, removing the preferred currency for drugs has also increased the price of non-prescription drugs, that is, OTC drugs because they do not have insurance coverage. This price increase appears to have somewhat controlled the rampant use of over-the-counter drugs.

Dr. Seyed Ali Fatemi, the former vice-chairman of the Iranian Pharmacists Association, states this point. According to this expert in the field of medicine, painkillers and cough medicines are the most used as OTC medicines. Of course, the amount of consumption of these drugs in Iran and the world is almost the same, and the realization of the price of these drugs after the reform of currency policies and the removal of the currency of 4,200 tomans has put us at the same level as other countries in terms of consumption.

Acute and chronic complications

Referring to the culture of buying medicine without exchanging the patient's information, Fatemi states: In order to sell medicine to a patient or any person who refers, a complete history and problem must be presented to the pharmacy doctor, but the purchase of over-the-counter drugs in the country's pharmacies is done without any A description of the disease and the medicine needed by the patients is not exchanged. This culture has almost settled among the people and they do not see the need to provide these explanations and directly demand the medicine. The pharmacist supplies these medicines based on the rules that exist.

Emphasizing that OTC drugs are not 100% safe, he continues: these drugs can have acute and chronic side effects. Acute side effects are those that the user faces immediately after taking the drug, and in chronic side effects, the same person may face problems caused by taking these drugs years later. For example, if someone has kidney problems, by consuming them, they will gradually suffer from failure.

Traumatic use of 4 acetaminophen

Referring to the high consumption of acetaminophen in the country, Fatemi says: People know this drug as a harmless or less harmful drug, but the side effects of this drug are also significant if it is used excessively. If a patient uses 4 acetaminophen 500 mg per day, he will experience liver poisoning or coma.

He emphasizes: Right now, there are about 200 painkillers in the country's drug list, all of which, if bought without a prescription, must be consumed according to the prescription and advice of the pharmacy doctor, which we do not see.

Do not self-treat the infection

This pharmaceutical expert says about the side effects of over-the-counter drugs: Some people look for over-the-counter drugs to solve the problem when faced with diarrhea, but infectious cases of diarrhea should not be treated by over-the-counter medication. The infection in the person's body should be treated. In this regard, the patient should not take antibiotics arbitrarily because antibiotics are not OTC drugs.

Complications of the old generation of colds

Pointing out that OTC drugs for colds or seasonal allergies have old and new generation, Fatemi explains: the old generation of these drugs have severe drowsiness and a person faces risks if he consumes too much antihistamines while working and driving. The new generation of these drugs are less sleepy, but they are not OTC and must be prescribed by a doctor.

Do not buy recommended medicine

According to this pharmaceutical expert, another bad culture that exists in our country is that the person who has the experience of using the medicine recommends it to others.

Fatemi further explains: This culture is wrong because even headaches are not the same in people, and in order to buy painkillers, a medical history must be taken by the pharmacy doctor. The important thing is that not every pain or headache can be solved with every painkiller. For this reason, there are all kinds of painkillers in the pharmaceutical market of the country, and doctors or pharmacy doctors can prescribe them based on the patient's needs. Menstrual pains, joint pains or headaches have different responses with different painkillers, so-called aunts and uncles for taking medicines are not recommended in any way.

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Ask your doctor's opinion

Fatemi states that drug interactions should also be considered: drug interactions are very important for OTC drugs. These drugs interact with blood clotting drugs.

He continues: A person with heart disease who uses warfarin should not take OTC drugs without a doctor's prescription. Even taking antibiotics and painkillers at the same time can affect their effectiveness.

According to this pharmaceutical expert, OTCs can also disrupt the absorption of vitamins, and for this reason, those who have a high consumption of drugs should get the necessary information from the pharmacy doctor about drug interactions so that the effectiveness of the main drug they use does not decrease and cause problems for patients. don't

Saying that reading drug brochures is also very important, Fatemi says: Of course, the culture of reading brochures or prescriptions for drugs is weak in Iran, and somehow people don't pay attention to them. Surveys show that a small percentage of people, when buying a drug, demand and read its brochure or get complete information about the drug from the technical manager or pharmacy doctor. While this issue is the essential principle of buying medicine and one should be informed about the side effects, the amount of consumption and the possibility of its interaction with other medicines.

He emphasizes: It is a serious recommendation that any type of non-prescription medicine must be obtained from a pharmacy with the opinion of a pharmacy doctor. If you do not have access to the drug brochure, reputable sites on the Internet are good sources for obtaining the necessary information. These reliable sources are easily available to consumers and drug warnings can be read in them.

This pharmaceutical expert warns that long-term use of OTC drugs is not recommended because they can have side effects and some of them will gradually lose their effectiveness.

The opposite effect of some drugs

It is said that the continuous use of drugs reduces their effectiveness, and Fatemi says: This issue does not apply to all OTC drugs. For example, regarding antibiotics, if they are taken without a prescription and without a doctor's prescription, the body's bacteria will adapt to them and stronger antibiotics should be prescribed. have the opposite effect. Anti-constipation drugs can also cause these conditions. Most of them are vegetable and it is better to change them once in a while.