How are paracetamol made and with what ingredients?

Question

what are the side effects. i'm having to take 4-6 a day and co-dydramol 4-6 a day for back pain.

Answer 1

Paracetamol is the name of the ingredient, not a brand name. Its chemical composition is C8H9NO2, and it can be synthesized in a number of steps from phenol. It is a very widely used analgesic.

It has few side-effects, but it is toxic, and the body can only tolerate a limited amount of it. An overdose will likely lead to acute liver failure, and cause death within 2-3 days. If you stay within your prescribed dose, however, it is perfectly safe. If you are taking 500mg tablets then 8 in any 24 hour period is the recommended limit.

The more important point here is that Co-dydramol ALSO contains 500mg of paracetamol, therefore if you take 6 paracetamol AND 6 co-dydramol you will be exceeding the recommended limit. Please check with your doctor if you are in any doubt about what doses or combinations you should take.

Answer 2

Paracetamol is made based on a compound called "para-acetyl-amino-phenol" which has painkilling properties. Commercial manufacturers uses "phenol" as its starting material. Phenol is nitrated to give a mixture of the "ortho and para-nitrotoluene". The "o-isomer" is removed by steam distillation, and the "p-nitro" group reduced to a "p-amino group". Acetylation is then done to to produce "para-acetyl-amino-phenol" which is the paracetamol.

Such compound when present in your body is recognized by the enzyme responsible in the biosynthesis of "prostaglandin" which are involved in dilatation of blood vessels resulting to headaches and pain. Presence of paracetamol would result in reduction of prostaglandin thus helping to prevent different sorts of pain.

Paracetamol metabolites are highly toxic, the reason why liver damage occurs when such drug is taken excessively. Do not be scared! - When taken When it is taken at the recommended dosage and used accordingly, hopefully there will be virtually no side-effects. The recommended dose is The recommended adult dose of paracetamol is 1 GRAM tablets, WITH 4 HOURS INTERVAL between doses, and no more than 4 GRAMS tablets in 24 hours. If normal dosage is adhered, there will be no accumulation of its metabolites in your system thus there will be no toxic effects.

Side effects are rare when taken at a recommended dose.The dose you are taking now is within the prescribed dosage, thus you need not to worry about the side effects. However, rare side effects can possibly happen and we cannot ignore that. Skin rashes, blood disorders and a swollen pancreas are among the rare known side effects in people taking the drug on a regular basis for a long time. Some level of liver injury is possible which risk increases as the dose taken is increased.

However, the Co-dydramol you are taking contains 2 active ingredients; paracetamol (500 mg) + dihydrocodeine (10 mg) which is an opiod. You should not take more than 2 tablets at any one time and do not take more than 8 tablets in 24 hours. Few known side effects in taking this drug are the following: constipation, nausea, headache, vertigo and dizziness, and skin rashes.

You may be interested to know more details about Co-dydramol, check out this link:
http://www.netdoctor.co.uk/medicines/100000567.html

Answer 3

I think that the main ingredient is para-acetic acid.

That's about all I know

xx

Answer 4

you'll have to read the leaflet that comes with 'em, it'll give you all the details

Answer 5

paracetemol is the name of the actual drug so it just contains that, read the leaflets for side effects