Tylenol Overdose
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Tylenol Overdose
May 2004
This week my daughter took a large amount of tylenol and
ended up in Children's Hospital. Fortunately, it was
caught in time, and it appears that there was no permanent
damage to her liver. In the same 24 hour period, one other
friend took an excessive (but smaller) amount of tylenol,
and a second friend took an overdose of Advil. All seem to
be OK, but of course as parents we are stunned. Has anyone
else had experience with this or heard of a) this type of
overdose, or b) this type of group experimenting? My
daughter claims she was depressed and was just trying to
make herself feel better. She says she had no idea how
lethal this could be.
Anonymous, of course
To the parent who inquired about whether others had
experience with teens overdosing on tylenol--and to any
other parents out there: PLEASE MONITOR YOUR
CHILD'S TYLENOL USAGE. Two years ago, my
16-year-old niece died from an overdose of Tylenol. An
autopsy revealed liver failure. Tylenol can cause
extreme liver damage. In my niece's case, she was a
competitive athlete who often suffered minor injuries or
muscle pain. Her parents, who are very paranoid about
all kinds of chemicals, eat only organic food, etc.
allowed her to take tylenol only, because they worried
about the chemicals in advil and aspirin. Because of
the stories we all grow up with that Tylenol is safest,
they believed that as long as she was only taking
tylenol she was OK. What we discovered was that as
she had grown old enough to buy Tylenol herself at the
drug store, etc., she had taken far more of it to deal with
her chronic pain that anyone knew. One night after
pitching a double-header softball game, she came
home and took two or three times the recommended
dosage, went to sleep and never regained
consciousness. Of course her parents blame
themselves because they had not known to warn her.
Also be aware that Tylenol is particularly toxic when
combined with alcohol. If teens are mixing the two to
reduce pain or help themselves relax, they could be
doing serious, potentially lethal, damange to their
bodies.
sister of a heartbroken dad
The mom writing the letter didn't specify if this was a matter of 5
tylenol at time over a period of hours or a bottle all at once. In any
case, it sounds like the girls she describes are in pain and want it
to stop. In cases where kids are considering suicide but don't have
access to prescription medications they resort to over the counter
drugs in large doses. When asked, they may say they didn't know or
that they didn't want to die. But I think they would admit to wanting
to stop pain. I'd see this as a warning that things are not right and
make sure these girls get psychological attention immediately.
Cynthia Brody, Marriage and Family Therapist
Moraga
In answer to your questions re: the Tylenol overdose - this
is apparently not as unusual as you would think. Our
family has experienced something similiar and in getting
help we met many other families who were dealing with teens
that had overdosed on some kind of over the counter med.,
self injuring or worse. All those teens describe
themselves as overwhelmed, depressed, etc. Don't hesitate
to seek out some kind of support for your family and teen.
anon
Although my family has not had this, a good friend's teen
daughter did this about 8 years. She took 10 Tylenol/Cold
pills. When her mom called Poison Control, they told her
to rush her to the ER. We were totally unaware of just how
dangerous even a few Tylenol can be - it can easily cause
major liver damage, up to and including the need for a
liver transplant. Very few can do this. So the first bit
of advise to families - don't buy Tylenol products. The
second is that in general this behavior tends to be one of
attention seeking, and one that the kids think is a
harmless way to yell HELP! They are unable to express it
and think this will draw some attention to their
situation, but are unaware of just how potentially life
threatening it can be. Talk to your children, it may rise
to the level that you should consider counseling.
anon
this page was last updated: Jul 10, 2004
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