The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 277 No 7419 p365
23 September 2006

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· NHS
· Paracetamol
· BPC
· Homoeopathy
· The Society
· Retention fee

Letters to the Editor

Paracetamol

Easy availability causes more accidental deaths

From Ms S. Nazmeen, MRPharmS, and others

Recently it was reported in the Postgraduate Medical Journal (2006;82:520) that easy availability of paracetamol tablets is causing more accidental deaths, and that most purchases of this product were from non-pharmacy outlets such as greengrocers, corner shops and supermarkets. There are suggestions that smaller packs of paracetamol tablets may lead to less abuse (PJ, 26 August, p248).

Restricting over-the-counter purchases of paracetamol to small pack sizes is not going to stop or deter the most determined suicidal individual, especially when the product is available through non-pharmacy outlets. This is one of the unfortunate scenarios one faces when a product is deregulated and available through wider distribution for the sake of consumer convenience. One has to be extremely careful when the current consensus is towards deregulation of medicines from POM to P and from P to GSL status. More convenient availability of products may in itself present new challenges relating to safe use of these products.

Last year, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency recommended the withdrawal of co-proxomol. The main reason for this withdrawal was abuse of co-proxomol and alcohol leading to accidental death. A point to note is that now paracetamol is becoming more easily available, this is leading to the same problem. Surely instead of withdrawing a useful drug like co-proxomol it would have been better to keep tighter controls on the use of these drugs.

Shazia Nazmeen
Huddersfield

Tariq Qazi
Halifax

Mohammed Siddique
Bradford

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