Paracetamol overdose: limiting the potential for harm

Paracetamol remains one of the drugs most frequently implicated in deliberate self‐poisoning overdoses in Australia

Paracetamol is the pharmaceutical agent most frequently taken for deliberate self‐poisoning by adults and adolescents in Australia, the United Kingdom, and other developed countries.1 It is primarily taken in overdose by younger women, in most cases for deliberate self‐harm. Toxicity can also result from accidental repeated supra‐therapeutic ingestion, particularly by people at higher risk of hepatotoxicity.2