Health authorities in a number of European countries, including Germany, Switzerland and Belgium, have warned of a dangerous trend on social networks, known as the Paracetamol Challenge or a challenge with the popular painkiller.
On the social network TikTok, users compete to see who can drink the most paracetamol and film themselves swallowing tablets of the drug.
The risks of paracetamol
Excessive use of paracetamol can lead to irreparable liver damage or death, warns Elmar Kroth from the German Pharmaceutical Association. In some cases, paracetamol has also caused metabolic acidosis - a dangerous increase in the body's acidity.
However, symptoms of liver damage can only appear for the first time 24 to 48 hours after consumption, Kroth said. By then, it may be too late for treatment. In the most severe cases, transplantation remains the only option to save the patient.
Signs of paracetamol poisoning include abdominal pain, nausea, coordination problems and yellowing of the skin, according to the Swiss public-law media SWI.
TikTok is still active in the US
The paracetamol challenge first spread among TikTok users in the United States. Experts have previously warned about dangerous trends on the social network. One of them is the drug Benadryl, which contains the antihistamine diphenhydramine and in large doses leads to hallucinations. After several hospitalizations and a death, the hashtag Benadryl was blocked.
Authorities in Washington were supposed to ban TikTok on January 19 after the Chinese owner of the app - ByteDance - refused to sell it to an American company. However, Donald Trump postponed the ban for 75 days.