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Re: Is this an addiction?... or what? - July 9th 2011, 03:21 AM

Paracetamol is not known to cause physiological addictions no matter the dosage, that is, any addiction would be psychological because it reduces pain. It doesn't matter how much you take, it will not be physiologically addictive. Evidence of this has come from various papers as far back as 1981 (possibly further back). The below link has the full paper (note it is a PDF):

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti...401930/?page=1

If you mix paracetamol with, say, alcohol, not only do you get one hell of an experience you also are at a very high risk for addiction, complicated treatments and high risk for long-term damage. One issue with paracetamol on its own is it can cause liver damage (and possibly kidney damage) if taken for too long due to build-up of NAPQI. http://www.medicinaoral.com/medoralf...lv13i4p235.pdf (PDF)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NAPQI (describes NAPQI a bit clearer)

Although you haven't overdosed, I'm just going to give a bit of information on the overdose. From the Wikipedia link, 16-36 hours after a large overdose (i.e. near lethal dose which is mentioned below), symptoms of severe liver damage occurs and at that point, you can kiss your ass good-bye. If it's not that big of an overdose, symptoms occur 3-4 days after but your liver has still taken a massive hit. If you get treated within 8 hours (sooner is always better) after the overdose with acetylcysteine and methionine, your liver won't take that big of a hit and you'll be better. The LD50 (half of the lethal dose) is between 5-7.5 grams of paracetamol. In other words, the lethal dose is between 10-15 grams.


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