You’re Probably Taking Too Much Ibuprofen, Study Says

Many people are taking more of pain medications like ibuprofen than they are supposed to, according to a new study.

Although taking too much of over-the-counter medications like ibuprofen, which is found in Advil and Motrin, can cause side effects like gastrointestinal bleeding, there are still a lot of people out there who take more than the recommended daily or weekly dose of the drugs. The study, in the journal Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety, pulled data from the weeklong online medication diary entries of more than 1,300 people to learn just how many went over the limit.

About 90 percent of those people took ibuprofen during the week that they kept their diary and about a third took other nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs —NSAIDs — like naproxen, the medication that is found in Aleve.

According to the researchers, the people who were most likely to exceed the recommended daily dose were male, had continuing pain, smoked daily or had “poor knowledge of the recommended 1-time and 24-hour doses.”

About 15 percent of the users taking ibuprofen exceeded those maximum doses.

“Exceeding the daily limit often followed taking too much of a single NSAID at one time, taking two different NSAIDs at the same time, or failing to wait long enough before taking another dose,” lead study author David Kaufman said in a statement from the Boston University School of Medicine. “It is important to understand how many users exceed the maximum, how they do it and what characteristics are associated with overuse. This knowledge can help guide consumer interventions to promote safer use.”

Acetaminophen, which is found in Tylenol, is not an NSAID, although it has its own side effects when used too much. That includes liver damage. Acetaminophen is a pain reliever but does not relieve inflammation, like ibuprofen does.

Generally maximum doses on NSAID labels suggest stopping at 1,200 milligrams per day, or about one every four hours for a 200-milligram pill. Many people will take two of those pills every six hours, which comes to 1,600 milligrams in a day.

It is possible to overdose on ibuprofen. That comes with symptoms like blurred vision, diarrhea, heartburn, headache, internal bleeding, sweating, seizures and other problems.