About 50% of overdoses are intentional (especially suicidal teenagers), with the other 50% accidental.
So when pondering the issue of numbers, it matters what path people took to overdose.
About 50% of overdoses are intentional (especially suicidal teenagers), with the other 50% accidental.
So when pondering the issue of numbers, it matters what path people took to overdose.
For all accidental acute poisonings leading to hospitalizations from OTC drugs amongst adults and adolescents, the top culprits are:
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