Analgesics represent a large group of medicines which is used for suppresing subjectively perceived pain. Analgesics can be divided into two large groups, opioids and non-opioids. Some of the non-opioids can be used as anti-inflammatory and/or antipyretics as well. All non-opioids influence metabolism of prostaglandins. Diverse group of non-opioid analgesics is available in Czech pharmacies as prescription medicines or for sale over the counter. The aim of this work is mainly to assess the toxicity of over-the-counter analgesics and to find out the frequency of fatal intoxications caused by these analgesics in the Czech Republic and abroad. A list of peroral over-the-counter analgesics was created. A partial analysis of data from medical judicial departments of regional hospitals in the Czech Republic was performed in order to obtain total number of deaths caused by overdosing with these drugs. Using ÚZIS the number of deaths was extracted from information system Deceased. These logged deaths were caused only by acute intoxication with analgesics and were chosen on basis of precisely defined combinations of diagnostic codes (MKN10). Results were then expanded by similar enumeration from the National register of hospitalized, by which we specified the amount of intoxications where patients survived. Overall case report was evaluated from processed information. The number of deaths caused by analgesics and commonly misused addictive substances were compared by which the second hypothesis was clarified. The data was obtained from Annual reports about substance misuse and 6 years were compared in total. Identified risk of analgesic in Czech Republic was compared with registered cases of overdosing in world. Data used for comparing were gained from analysis of world literature. During the years 2006 ? 2011, 53 deaths and 2024 hospitalizations in the Czech Republic were caused by acute intoxication as a result of overdosing with mentioned medication. Our first hypotesis can be confirmed on the basis of these numbers, and therefor it can be said that over-the-counter medicines used for suppressing pain can cause death. On the basis of analysis of world literature a certain risk is seen in fact that these analgesics ? mainly paracetamol ? are often linked with suicides. For instance in United Kingdom thousands of cases of self-harm are caused by overdosing with paracetamol. In USA 16 500 deaths are thought to be caused by NSAIDS and 1600 acute liver failure incidents are caused by overdosing with paracetamol annualy. Illegal drugs caused 253 intoxications during the years 2006 -2011 compared to 53 cases of deaths caused by overdosing by analgesics. Annual reports about substance misuse report that deaths caused by illegal drugs are more common than deaths caused by over-the-counter analgesics in the Czech Republic. There remains a question: What percentage of analgesics intoxications, where patient survived or not, is caused only by over-the-counter analgesics without any other cause.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:nusl.cz/oai:invenio.nusl.cz:154225 |
| Date | January 2013 |
| Creators | VODVÁŘKA, Stanislav |
| Source Sets | Czech ETDs |
| Language | Czech |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | info:eu-repo/semantics/masterThesis |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/restrictedAccess |
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