What's Tylenol Doing to Our Minds?
It is pleasing to see error bars on a graph in a mainstream publication.  It's very nice to have them saying that the study was small and there are more questions to be asked.<p>It's good that they mentioned the severe toxicity of paracetamol in overdose.  It does kill many people, and it's not a pleasant death.  It also accounts for many organ transplants.<p>It would have been nice if they'd said that, taken carefully and with no over dose, paracetamol is a very safe and very effective medication.  It's very cheap.  (At least here in the UK, I found it bafflingly expensive in the US.)<p>Cultural note: In the UK most medication is dispensed in blister packs.  You can buy paracetamol off the shelf but you can only get limited quantities.  Most shops will only sell you 16 tablets (at 500 g each) or 32 if you buy it from a person.  You can get 100 if you see a pharmacist and persuade them you need them, but that'll be a struggle in most places.  You can get large amounts if you have a prescription.  16 tablets at 500 g each would cost around £0.20 (for budget pills).  Blister packs was an effective suicide control measure, reducing the number of pills taken and the number of overdoses attempted.  Reduced quantities of pills sold had an initial success in reducing suicide rates, but number have since risen.  Pills in the homes of old people are especially dangerous.  This is because they're not locked away, and young children visiting sometimes take the pills.  And also because suicide rates among old people are depressingly high.