TOXICOLOGICAL EVENTS ASSOCIATED WITH PARACETAMOL MANAGED BY A TOXICOLOGY INFORMATION AND ASSISTANCE CENTER

This study aimed to analyze the toxicological events associated with paracetamol managed by aToxicological Information and Assistance Center. It was a cross-sectional, retrospective study based on casesof toxicological events associated with the drug paracetamol attended by the Toxicological Information andAssistance Center of Londrina (CIATox/Londrina). The data was extracted from the Brazilian Poison DataSystem (DATATOX) from 2017 to 2021. The data was analyzed using the Statistical Package for the SocialSciences (SPSS), version 19.0. This study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of the StateUniversity of Londrina. Between 2017 and 2021, CIATox/Londrina received 685 cases of toxicologicalevents associated with paracetamol, of which the vast majority (75.0%) were women who had attemptedsuicide (83.2%) as their main circumstance. Most cases (37.7%) occurred in the afternoon on Saturdays andSundays, the days of the week with the highest number of cases (15.7% and 16.2%, respectively).Paracetamol was combined with other substances in 156 (22.8%) cases. Almost 80.0% of the cases hadclinical manifestations, with 36.4% requiring hospitalization (minimum of one and maximum of 37 days).Most cases were categorized as mild (57.7%), and four (0.6%) deaths were identified among all the cases.The antidote N-acetylcysteine was administered to 37.1% (N=255) patients. In general, toxicological eventsassociated with paracetamol occurred predominantly in women in the afternoon and on Saturdays andSundays, and involved suicide attempts. It is, therefore, essential to develop campaigns that encourage thecorrect use of medication and other public health campaigns, especially for those individuals who are moresusceptible to suicide attempts.