My husband didn't know Lemsip has paracetamol in it..

[bbcessex]

HUGE HUGE apologies to a reasonably recent OP who posted about paracetamol .

I did not think there was anyone out there who didn't know about the risks of taking too much / medicines that contained paracetamol but seems I should have looked closer to home.

I don't think drug companies can do anymore, people need to take responsibility ( no knock
At your dh btw op).
They shouldn't be taken off shelves.
I can understand taking an extra dose when ill, that is def easily done but not several. people need to read the labels before taking medications, it's important.
Some people can't take tablets. I've known a person simply take these when ill as they really struggled to take tablets.
We already can only buy 2 boxes of painkillers and boxes have been reduced, making it very hard for some people without taking more items away all together.

imnot thankfully it was only one extra dose of paracetamol!

eve zapan?

Sorry, gonna be sexist here, but it's not just drugs is it with men? They seem to be missing the bit of their brains which deals with medical matters. If my OH sees the Doctor he never knows what he has said, can't remember the answers to the questions he meant to ask (and which I write down for him, like a mum for a kid!) and now asks me to go with him!!

They use up all their intelligence and good sense on other important stuff like work and sport, apparently.

mrsmorton wow.. 500 paracetamol in one purchase 😨

I didn't know strepsils have to be taken carefully. I thought they were just like cough sweets i.e. no actual medication.
In terms of the patient leaflet, now I am older, I find them very hard to read, even with glasses. Since older people are much more likely to take prescribed medication, I suspect a lot of people struggle to read them.

I've always read the leaflet in any medicine that I take, always have done, and so does everyone I know. I also would never have been given Lemsip as a child, it was only for adults in my house, so maybe that affects my outlook?

I agree with other posters though that it's not sold along with the drinks in a supermarket, it's with the medicine. And more specifically it is with the painkiller medicine, not eg the multivitamins or laxatives, so it's hard to see how much clearer anyone could make it. People really do need to take responsibility for what they ingest.

With regard to the information leaflet, my MIL reads the leaflet so that she can decide in advance that she has suffered every single one of the noted side effects 30 seconds after taking the medicine . I'm just waiting for the day when she reports erectile dysfunction or something else that can't possibly affect her...

Because of this thread I asked DH whether he knew about lemsip containing paracetamol. Apparently he didn't.

Not that I have to worry about him overdosing on it; he doesn't take paracetamol when he's really ill so I'm not anticipating that he would for a heavy cold!

Lemsip made my mum really poorly a few christmas's ago she had a massive allergic reaction to it bless her.
Cough and cold medicines nearly all contain paracetamol and you have to be really careful especially when you are feeling so poorly.

I work in a pharmacy and it is part of our training to remind every customer about how to use the drugs that they are buying, maximum daily dose, what is in them, what they shouldn't take with it etc. We also remind them to read the patient information leaflet as well. I also remind peope who are buying paracetamol that things like lemsip contain it too and can easily catch people out.
For those of you who struggle reading the information leaflet, I agree the writing can be tiny. Hop on over to the EMC website ( www.medicines.org.uk/emc/ ) and you can search for and view the PIL for pretty much every OTC and POM item you can get. :) As its a PDF format, you can zoom in as much as you need :)

I'm coming down with a cold (just in time for carol singing this weekend, annoyingly) and all this talk of Lemsip v hot Ribena is making me a bit sad.

I have Lemsip in the cupboard. I have Morrisons knockoff Ribena arriving with Philip in a Market Street van at some point in the next hour.

Do I have a "powdered paracetamol with stale dip dap" (lol) now, or wait for the hot blackcurranty loveliness in an hour?

We use the cold & flu medicine which is paracetamol, phenylephrine and guaifenesin (?sp) as it works a lot harder. I can't take normal cold & flu as it nearly always contains caffeine, which I don't tolerate well.

I'm good at reading labels, having spent eight years pg/bf/both and now having an autoimmune thyroid. DH skips the contraindications and goes straight for the side effects - "ooh, might cause diarrhoea". Yes, dear, in 1/100,000 patients and in the meantime your snoring is driving me up the wall.

Clarification: I'll have either Lemsip or hot blackcurrant and cold & flu capsules. I won't combine Lemsip drink and cold & flu capsules. Because that would be stupid.

We stay away from Lemsip (tastes vile and chemical). Instead we put lemon juice, honey and some ginger in a mug and top up with very hot water and take a paracetamol tablet separately. Much more pleasant!

To the pharmacists on here, is paracetamol maximum doses based on weight? Just curious how it's worked out?

If you are only allowed 4 grams in 24 hours, what is the amount that you would have to go over by, to cause concern?

A quick Google raised this:

It is important to remember that, when used at therapeutic levels, paracetamol is usually safe and effective. However, taking 4 g per day (or slightly more) for a few days has been known to result in hepatotoxicity.

Paracetamol overdose may occur intentionally and accidentally - the latter due to the high number of combination products available over-the-counter.

So you could poison your liver even taking it as indicated. It's not a harmless drug!

I used to take lemsip and sudafed. Until a pharmacist told me I was overdosing. I knew about the paracetamol but not the decongestant.

I don't take it at all now, its vile, I'd rather have a sudafed and paracetamol in generic unbranded boxes saves a fortune and works better.

I do know the suicide rate dropped when the sale of OTC paracetamol was restricted however I do enjoy my trips to America where I can buy 500 in a bottle.

DM has to take paracetamol daily for her arthritis. Thankfully the doctor has agreed she can have it on prescription now so we don't have to keep buying her the small boxes. There's got to be a more efficient way of prescribing it as she would be happy to pay for it - perhaps the GP could do a letter that could be shown at the pharmacy to allow people to buy bigger quantities.

Who the hell takes any drug, OTC or prescription, without reading the information leaflet? Well your DH obviously.

I think the best step would be to stop selling it in supermarkets, I've heard staff at pharmacies checking they aren't taking paracetamol etc with it, that's not going to happen in a supermarket. It also feels less serious if it's thrown in the trolley with your bread and milk, I know the same argument could be said for any medicine but people are more aware with things like paracetamol.

The supermarkets (or any shop) have a limit of 2 boxes of paracetamol to be sold in any transaction etc, does anybody know if it flags up if you have 3 lemsip or 2 boxes of paracetamol and a box of lemsip

The supermarkets (or any shop) have a limit of 2 boxes of paracetamol to be sold in any transaction etc, does anybody know if it flags up if you have 3 lemsip or 2 boxes of paracetamol and a box of lemsip

I'd be interested to know this too

It is the placebo effect; there's only 650mg paracetamol in 'normal' Lemsip.

You keep saying this. That's more than one 500mg tablet and you are supposed to take one or two tablets! Is there actually any research to suggest that 1g is the minimum effective dose?

Personally, I take one or two, depending on level of pain.

I've honestly never taken less than two. Despite its toxicity, I find that it is limited as an analgesic. If I've got enough pain to actually take it, why not take the full dosage?

If you only take one, you can't really be in much pain, surely.

In America paracetamol is called acetaminophen, the podcast This American Life did a very interesting episode on it

www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/505/use-only-as-directed

Er... How long is a piece of string?

I tend to refuse to take painkillers for hours (probably a legacy from childhood), and then I give in and take one. If it's not effective enough after half an hour, I take another one.

In labour, of course, I took the full dose.

How w could it be any more obvious?

It could be called, as its brand name, Lemsip With Paracetamol and the word Paracetamol could be in the same sized letters as Lemsip.

Same for e.g. panadol - it could be called Panadol Brand Paracetamol and the name could be in the same size letters.