• LillyPip@lemmy.ca
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    1 day ago

    Literally no Americans know what paracetamol is. Randomly ask anyone.

    Americans know brand names: Tylenol, Advil, Prilosec, Ambien.

    I’ll bet you could survey Americans and 999/1000 have never even have heard the word paracetamol. Or zolpidem, and slightly less often, omeprazole (though that one may be increasing due to the general state of things and subsequent need for prescriptions). Most won’t have heard anything but the brand names, and the brand names have been drilled into their heads by way of constant advertising.

    US brands have spend stupid amounts of money making sure people think of their propriety name instead of the real name of any drug.

    • Rivalarrival@lemmy.today
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      1 day ago

      Americans know “paracetamol” about as well as you apparently know “acetaminophen”.

      They are the same compound.

      “Paracetamol” is the generic term used in Europe and Australia. “Acetaminophen” is the generic term commonly used in the Americas.

      • merc@sh.itjust.works
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        10 hours ago

        Both are slightly less clunky words created from the corpse of “N-acetyl-para-aminophenol”

        “Acetaminophen” takes the “acet” from “acetyl” and “aminophen” from “aminophenol”.

        “Paracetamol” takes the “para” part, and then a few other random letters that don’t really make sence. “cet” from “acetyl”, and maybe “am” from the start of “amphenol” with the “ol” ending from the same word, ignoring that it ends in “nol”?

        • Rivalarrival@lemmy.today
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          7 hours ago

          Paracetamol" takes the “para” part, and then a few other random letters that don’t really make sence.

          Because it actually comes from a different chemical name for the same compound: para-acetylaminophenol

          • merc@sh.itjust.works
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            5 hours ago

            Whichever version you use, it doesn’t really make sense. The para part, sure. But “cetamol”? I guess you can can smush two of the words together and go from “para-acet” to “paracet”. But, the “amol” ending? It seems to be borrowing the “am” from amino, and the “ol” from the end. But, that’s a weird set of letters to borrow, and weird to not borrow the full “amin” from amino and not borrow the full “enol” from phenol.

      • LillyPip@lemmy.ca
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        1 day ago

        Americans barely know ‘acetaminophen’ , too. Some, sure. Most know Tylenol.

    • SolSerkonos@piefed.social
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      1 day ago

      Nobody would’ve heard paracetamol, but you’d probably get some hits with acetaminophen. Not a lot, to be clear, but some.

    • TrickDacy@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      I know several Americans who know what paracetamol is. Not sure it’s as rare as you think.

    • RebekahWSD@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      I know almost all my meds by the generic names because I’m broke and that’s what the pharmacy will give me. Ibuprofen, levothyroxine, etc. Alprazolam.

    • HootinNHollerin@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      1 day ago

      I most certainly do because I’ve traveled a lot

      But people that lump all Americans are just as ignorant as who they’re trying to criticize