Last Updated on February 5, 2020
© Harvard Health – Harvard University
Over-the-counter medication is a term used to describe all those different health products that you have stored in your bathroom cabinet which don’t require a medical prescription.
Those are typically pain relievers (such as acetaminophen and ibuprofen), antihistamines (like loratadine), cough suppressants (like dextromethorphan), and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (like aspirin).
The reason why you don’t need a prescription to buy and medicate yourself with these drugs is that they are safe for use by the general public and very effective in treating a great variety of common symptoms.
However, there are always some precautions to take into consideration that can be found in the information leaflet that comes inside the package. And yes, you should read it!
Since taking over-the-counter pain killers is most people’s first response to find medical relief after they feel the first symptoms of a minor illness kick in, it is definitely worth knowing the risks associated with self-medication. In this article, we will go through some of the most common and dangerous side effects of OTC drugs.
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1. Liver damage
OTC medications with acetaminophen as an active ingredient are responsible for roughly half of the cases of acute liver failure in the United States.
This is a direct result of overdose (most cases are in fact caused by suicidal overdose, but accidental overdose is also somewhat common) or from taking the pills while drinking alcohol. Symptoms of liver damage include loss of appetite, nausea, and vomiting. If not treated, it can potentially be fatal.
Tylenol is the most popular OTC pain med, with Americans taking a total of more than 8 billion capsules each year. The maximum recommended dose of acetaminophen is 4 thousand milligrams a day, so if you take a combination of different medications you need to be careful and make sure you are not exceeding that dosage (many different products use acetaminophen as an ingredient so… read the labels!).
People who have reduced kidney function need to be extremely cautious as non-steroid anti-inflammatory drugs reduce the blood flow to the kidney, thus increasing the risk of kidney failure. Talk to your doctor before taking any medicine that belongs to this group of pain relievers.
