Stop Alvedon in the supermarket – Dagens Medicin

The Medical Products Agency has decided on the sales end to paracetamol tablets in retail.

The reason is that more and more poisoned by pain pills since the sale was allowed outside pharmacies almost six years ago – especially young women who deliberately try to harm themselves.

– We want to take a measure which has such a strong impact as possible on these impulse documents and as little effect as possible on the normal use, says Rolf Gedeborg, researcher at the Medical Products Agency.

The ban will take effect on 1 November. The decision concerns only ordinary tablets are swallowed whole, and not, for example, suppositories, solutions, orodispersible tablets and effervescent tablets.

The background is a study that MPA done and that shows that the number of poisoning cases doubled between 2000 and 2013. One clear trend seen after 2009, when paracetamol went on sale outside pharmacies. Since then, the number of people poisoned increased by 40 percent – from about 1100 to just over 1 500th

The conclusion is that there is a coincidence in time between the increased availability of paracetamol and the number who become poisoned.

– We see a clear increase in the number of poisoning cases are essentially self-destructive acts, namely impulse documents where you know there is a connection to availability. When availability increased so did this problem, says Rolf Gedeborg.

It is not considered likely that the increase would be due to chance and not because there are more of paracetamol in society overall.

That it basically only receptförskriven paracetamol has increased in sales during the period – and which therefore can not buy, for example, petrol stations and in the supermarket – play according to the MPA no role.

– There is a misunderstanding that there would be a direct link between how much acetaminophen which is normally used and the number of poisonings. The absolute majority of the normal use is no problem, and it is also not so that you would have an increased tendency to poison themselves to more others use acetaminophen normal, says Rolf Gedeborg.

What effect the measure can get the number of poisoning cases, the MPA can not yet assess.

– We follow how this problem develops.

TT: How do you see the possibility of increasing the use of other OTC drugs against pain and fever, which may also have negative consequences for health?

– It is important to remember that acetaminophen will still be available outside pharmacies in other forms. As for alternative drugs available for sale outside pharmacies have been assessed as safe and it’s not dependent on what other products sold, says Rolf Gedeborg.