Tylenol Essay -- Health, Pain

Acetaminophen is a popular and powerful analgesic that is available over the counter and use worldwide, but is not widely used everywhere in the world. (1) It has been shown to temporally relieve aches, pain associated with common issues such as headache, toothaches, cramps, etc. (1) Acetaminophen can also be used to reduce fever. It has analgesic and antipyretic effects that are very similar to that of aspirin but it lacks the anti-inflammatory effects. (1) The following will explain the pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, and molecular toxicity of acetaminophen. Pharmacokinetics is the study of how a drug is processed in the body by examining absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion. Pharmacodynamics is the mechanism of the drug at physiological, biochemical and molecular levels in the body. Molecular toxicology is the study of genetic molecules susceptible to external drugs, poisons, pollutants and their interaction with biological systems at a molecular level. For an adult (age 13 and older who are at least 110lbs) the recommended oral dose is 325-1000mg, for a rectal dose it is 650mg, and the total daily dose should not exceed 4000mg.(1) For children, depending on their age and weight, the recommended dose is 40-480mg with no more than 5 doses being administered in one day. (2) For intravenous dosing is very similar to oral dose. The standard recommended intravenous dose is either 1000 mg every six hours or 650 mg every four hours and again no more than 4000mg in 24 hours. (2) Acetaminophen can be administered orally, rectally, or intravenously. Orally acetaminophen is available in tablets/capsules (extended release and regular), chewable tablets, oral granules, and liquid suspensions. Rectally it is adm... ...sired result. This can be viewed by the dose response curve the any drug. Yet, currently there is no dose response curve for acetaminophen in existence for humans and because of this we have been unable to optimize patient therapy without the fear of overdose. (4) In recommended therapeutic doses the drug is tolerated well.(2) Single or repeated doses of acetaminophen do not have any effects on system like the cardiovascular or respiratory. It does not produce gastric irritation or bleeding which may be typical for this type of analgesic. (2) It also has no effect on platelets of uric acid excretion.(2) One may experience skin rashes or have an allergic reaction but that is rare.(2) By looking at the pharmacokinetics is it very easy to overdose or tox out from acetaminophen because the binding potential of the drug is so low and the range of distribution is high.