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Tylenol, Other Medications Fuel Spike In Liver Damage Cases, Poison Center Data Says
- August 17, 2026
- Dennis Thompson HealthDay Reporter
MONDAY, Aug. 17, 2026 (HealthDay News) — There’s been a nearly 400% increase in calls to U.S. poison centers related to liver injuries, mostly related to Tylenol and other medications, a new study says.
Liver injuries caused by foreign substances skyrocketed from an estimated 11 cases per million people to nearly 53 cases per million between 2000 and 2024, researchers reported Aug. 13 in the journal Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology.
Medications accounted for most of these liver injuries, including 85% of cases among men and 94% of cases among women, researchers found.
Acetaminophen (Tylenol) was the drug most frequently implicated in liver injuries reported to poison centers, researchers said. About 33% of men and 45% of women reported injuries due solely to Tylenol.
“Liver injuries reported to poison centers have increased substantially over the past 25 years, with acetaminophen emerging as a growing contributor,” researcher Dr. Christopher Holstege, director of the University of Virginia Health’s Blue Ridge Poison Center, said in a news release.
For the new study, researchers analyzed U.S. poison center records, identifying more than 220,000 cases of liver injury caused by foreign substances like medications, supplements, alcohol or illicit drugs.
The number of liver injuries requiring treatment has steadily and substantially increased over the last quarter-century, researchers said.
In fact, more than 80% of the cases required hospitalization, their results showed.
The team found that cases involving acetaminophen-containing drugs decreased significantly, by as much as 85%, after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration imposed a cap on the amount of the drug that could be allowed in combination prescription products.
Despite that, Tylenol on its own remained a leading contributor to liver injuries reported to poison centers.
Alcohol was a distant second in the top causes of liver injuries, researchers found. Other far-less-common causes of liver injury included stimulants, street drugs, herbal and dietary supplements, and environmental toxins.
“Medications should always be taken as directed by clinicians and per pharmaceutical label instructions,” Holstege said. “Care must also be taken in consuming emerging substances that are unregulated. More studies are warranted to determine if specific populations are more at risk of liver injury.”
More information
Harvard Medical School has more on Tylenol and liver injury.
SOURCES: University of Virginia, news release, Aug. 13, 2026; Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Aug. 13, 2026
