I am still getting a worrying number of people coming to this blog trying to find out how many tablets of paracetamol one would need to swallow in order to overdose.

The answer is that it varies from person to person and depends on a lot of things including your physical state of health, your size and your weight.

Again, I stress if you are feeling suicidal the please talk to a doctor, counsellor or someone else.  Being suicidal doesn’t always result in having to be “sectioned” and talking can help you to get out of that dark place.  If you feel you may have accidentally taken a paracetamol overdose then call your GP or NHS Direct (or NHS 24 in Scotland) to seek professional advice on the matter).

For those planning suicide by a paracetamol overdose then remember it is not quick and it is not painless.   You often die days, weeks, months or even years after the overdose by which time you will almost certainly have changed your mind on dying.  Ironically, given that paracetamol is an analgesic, it can be quite a painful death also.

That’s been another public service broadcast from Ramblings of a Scottish Student.

• Health