Posted by nkurz 2 days ago
Have gotten into a habit of keeping a note of which med when on the fridge.
I didn't know about this acetaminophen risk. So I'll be looking for alternatives. Ibuprofen is for inflammation and not headaches. Naproxen is a candidate.
Ibuprofen is very well supported as a treatment for migraines. Not necessarily headaches generally, but definitely migraines.
But there are multiple classes of abort drugs now that a doctor might be able to prescribe you, like triptans and CGRP inhibitors, that work much better than either NSAIDs or acetaminophen.
But yet in some countries pediatricians will libreally prescribe it to toddlers
[1] https://www.bmj.com/content/368/bmj.m1086
Also from [2] "In this systematic review of NSAID use during acute lower respiratory tract infections in adults, we found that the existing evidence for mortality, pleuro-pulmonary complications and rates of mechanical ventilation or organ failure is of extremely poor quality, very low certainty and should be interpreted with caution."
https://bpspubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/bcp.1451...
Acetaminophen is the only medication of its kind approved for infants under six months because the liver develops faster than the kidneys.
Acetaminophen = Paracetamol
That being said I weirdly find Naproxen the most effective of all of these. Everyone is different though
Why? Because Celebrex (celecoxib) is a dangerous drug which can cause irreparable harm (heart attacks and related) if taken for long periods. In fact, its sister drug Vioxx (rofecoxib) was banned and Merck had to pay billions in damages. There's more here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47835635#47862704
Whilst Celebrex is safer than Vioxx it still has the same side effects profile as the latter.
I'd also recommended you watch the YouTube video in the link on Vioxx, it demonstrates the dangers of COX-2 drugs shouldn't be underestimated.
56,000 emergency room visits is the key here, because "the mortality associated with acetaminophen overdose is low if recognized and treated within the first 8 hours after an acute ingestion."
So I guess it depends on if you think 56,000 is low or not.
Source: "Acetaminophen Toxicity", David H. Schaffer; Brian P. Murray; Babak Khazaeni. 2026/02/19. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK441917/
So when pondering the issue of numbers, it matters what path people took to overdose.
1. Acetaminophen: Dangers noted in article, and stats given in my parent comment
2. NSAIDs: "NSAIDs are ingested commonly in overdose, however severe toxicity is rare"
3. Salicylates "Severe salicylate poisoning follows ingestion of greater than 500 mg/kg". For an adult weighing 150lbs that is 68kg, which means severe poisoning requires 34g of aspirin, which at 325mg per pill is 104 pills total. Hardly easy to do this accidentally.
[1] "Acute poisoning: understanding 90% of cases in a nutshell", S L Greene, P I Dargan, A L Jones, Postgrad Med J 2005;81:204–216