Paracetamol pack cuts had little effect on suicides
Paracetamol over the counter sales were restricted in 1998 |
New research has shown that restricting the size of packs of paracetamol sold over the counter since 1998 might have had no effect in reducing the number of deaths from suicide.
Oliver Morgan, of the Imperial College department of primary care and
social medicine, London, and colleagues analysed suicide statistics before
and after the law change and found that, although paracetamol-related
deaths fell, so did deaths from salicylates, antidepressants and, to
a lesser extent, compound paracetamol preparations. Non-drug deaths from
suicide also fell at the same rate.
They conclude that the concomitant fall in non-paracetamol deaths raises
a question over whether the decline in paracetamol deaths was due to
the law change or was part of a wider trend of decreasing numbers of
suicides (PLoS Medicine 2007;4:e105 (PDF 170K)). “We
found little evidence to support the hypothesis that the 1998 regulations
limiting
pack size
resulted in a greater reduction in poisoning deaths involving paracetamol
than
occurred for other drugs or non-drug poisoning suicide,” they conclude.
Commenting on the finding in the same issue, Nicholas Buckley, from the
Australian National Medical School’s department of clinical pharmacology
and toxicology, Canberra, said that the research had not shown that legislation
had no effect, but that it was not possible to reject the possibility
that the reduction was due to chance. He added that it was likely that
pack size restriction did have some effect, but that it was far more
modest than had been hoped (ibid, e152 (PDF 80K)).
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