LONDON - The rates of suicide from overdoses dropped by nearly 25 per cent after a new law in the United Kingdom reduced the size of packages of painkillers, researchers say.
Investigators studied rates of suicides and non-fatal overdoses of Aspirin and Tylenol between 1993 and 2003 across the U.K.
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Doctors say ibuprofin is relatively safe in overdose.
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In September 1998, the British government introduced legislation to cut the size of packages for the analgesics and limit how many pills retailers can sell over the counter.
Researchers at the Centre for Suicide Research at the University of Oxford found suicide deaths from paracetamol (acetaminophen) and ASA fell by 22 per cent in the three years after the legislation was changed.
The number of tablets taken in non-fatal overdoses of the two medications also fell.
Admissions to liver units for acetaminophen poisoning, and numbers of related liver transplants also dropped by nearly 30 per cent in the four years after the law came into force.
Overdoses of ibuprofin, which isn't covered by the law, increased but with little or no effect on deaths, the researchers said.
The team acknowledged smaller pack sizes do not prevent someone from buying multiple packs from different retailers.
Many people who overdose, though, do so impulsively, using medicines on hand at home, the study's authors said in this week's issue of BMJ Online First.
They note France and Ireland have reduced the size of packages more than the U.K.
"A further small reduction in pack sizes of paracetamol and salicylates would be unlikely to inconvenience users and could have further beneficial effects in preventing deaths from self poisoning," the researchers conclude.