Question

A client with a history of chronic alcohol use but without visible jaundice comes to the clinic reporting nausea and weakness. She admits to taking acetaminophen for persistent headaches but denies exceeding the recommended daily dose; she has not taken any other medications. She is suspected of having acetaminophen toxicity. Which diagnostic test finding would suggest a different cause of her symptoms?

Answer 1

Answer: malnutrition

Explanation:

It has been evident in chronic alcohol users to be be malnourished due to loss of appetite and irregularities in their feeding.

This kind of patients might suffer acetaminophen toxicity from ingestion of acetaminophen for her headaches because malnutrition causes depletion of glutathione stores in the system.