Contents:
- Medical Video: Ibuprofen Side Effects - what your doctor might not tell you...
- What is ibuprofen?
- What is the safe dose of ibuprofen?
- Symptoms of ibuprofen overdose
- Doctor's care when experiencing ibuprofen overdose
- Complications due to overdose of ibuprofen
Medical Video: Ibuprofen Side Effects - what your doctor might not tell you...
A person can experience an overdose while taking certain drugs if they exceed the recommended dosage, including when using ibuprofen. Ibuprofen is a pain reliever that can usually be easily obtained on the market or sold without a prescription. When you experience an overdose of ibuprofen, you can experience various side effects that are harmful to the body. For more details, following the review.
What is ibuprofen?
Ibuprofen is a nonsteorid anti-inflammatory drug used to treat inflammation, fever, and mild pain. Usually, this drug is used to treat:
- Headache
- Back pain
- Tooth ache
- Arthritis
- Menstrual cramps
- Fever
Ibuprofen works by lowering hormones that cause inflammation and pain. In addition, this drug also works by interfering with the normal functioning of the nervous system by changing the pain signals captured by nerve cells.
On the market, ibuprofen has various brands including:
- Motrin
- Advil
- Midol
- Nuprin
- Pamprin IB
What is the safe dose of ibuprofen?
Ibuprofen is usually safe to use for adults and children over the age of 6 months. However, this also depends on the health conditions of each person. People with heart disease, stomach or intestinal problems, and a history of blood clots are usually not recommended to take this medicine.
For adults, the recommended dose is one or two 200 mg tablets every four to six hours. Adults should not consume more than 800 mg at a time or 3,200 mg per day.
However, the safe dose is 1200-1600 mg per day. Meanwhile, people aged over 60 years have a higher risk of kidney and gastrointestinal damage so that the dose needs to be reduced at the doctor's advice.
While dosage sizes for children, will be adjusted to height and age. So you can't just give it without instructions from a doctor. Generally, children are not given more than four doses per day. Oral drops, syrups and chewable tablets are types of ibuprofen for babies and children.
It should be noted, too, if you take drugs other than ibuprofen try to drink it eight hours before or 30 minutes after other drugs such as aspirin, ketoprofen or naproxen.
Symptoms of ibuprofen overdose
Symptoms of ibuprofen overdose sometimes do not appear immediately after you consume them. However, this can vary for each person. Symptoms that occur are divided into mild and severe.
The following are various mild symptoms that you will experience, namely:
- Ears ringing
- Heartburn
- Nausea
- Gag
- Diarrhea
- Dizzy
- Heartburn to gastrointestinal bleeding
- Blurred vision
- Reddish rash on the skin
- Sweating for no apparent reason
- Abdominal pain due to bleeding in the body
The various symptoms are quite severe, namely:
- Breathless
- Seizures
- Blood pressure is too low (hypotension)
- Little or no urine production because the kidneys are disrupted
- Severe headache
- Coma
While in infants, symptoms include lethargy, not responding quickly, and temporary apnea or respiratory arrest.
Doctor's care when experiencing ibuprofen overdose
When you experience these symptoms, then immediately go to the nearest hospital. The doctor will see the respiratory rate, heart rate and other vital signs. Usually, the doctor will also insert a device through the mouth to look for internal bleeding if you experience abdominal pain.
The doctor will also do a number of treatments such as:
- Medications that make you vomit.
- Gastric lavage, if the drug is taken in the last hour.
- Activated charcoal.
- Purgative.
- Respiratory devices such as oxygen or ventilators.
- Intravenous fluids.
Complications due to overdose of ibuprofen
In some cases, an overdose of ibuprofen can cause a variety of serious problems in your gastrointestinal tract which include:
- Inflammation
- Bleeding
- Ulcer wounds
- Stroke
- Heart attack
- Intestinal perforation, when the intestines leak until the contents enter the abdominal cavity.
- Kidney or liver failure
Therefore, to avoid the symptoms of this overdose, you need to carefully read the doctor's recommendations and the rules for drinking on the label. Be sure to drink it as recommended without overestimating or reducing the dose.
