Painkillers Do Not Necessarily Alleviate Pain

Painkillers that claim to be 'fast acting' are just a waste of money because they do nothing to alleviate pain, pain experts suggest.

A research by Nuffield Health confirms that people are typically worried that they might be dependent on painkillers and are concerned about its effects on health like stomach bleeding. Experts suggest that buying cheaper painkillers like paracetamol or ibuprofen may be better in addressing various types of pain. "I'd always choose the cheaper drug," says Dr. Mike Platt, lead consultant for pain services at Imperial Healthcare NHS Trust.

"Some tablets claim to work faster but changes to rates of absorption would be marginal. Normal painkillers start working after 20 to 30 minutes and even "express" pills have to go through the same process - reaching the stomach, being broken down and absorbed by the small intestine," he added. "Liquid capsules may be absorbed more rapidly because they are easier to break down but would be a 'relatively be insignificant' time difference."

Experts also confirmed that over-the-counter painkillers for periods of pain or migraine are generally not worth buying. Ibuprofen is said to work as well as 'targeted' products like Feminax because the components are the same, suggests Nitu Bajekal, consultant obstetrician and gynecologist at Barnet Hospital, North London. Dr. Giles Elrington, medical director of the charity National Migraine Center said: "most migraine-targeted medication are just standard painkillers."

Imigran Recovery and Migraleve Ultra are exceptions because they contain sumatriptan, a drug that mimics the action of the brain's 'happy chemical', serotonin. The absence of serotonin is believed to trigger migraines. "But this is much more expensive than sumatriptan on prescription. Read the small print on the leaflet and you'll see that most products contain the standard ibuprofen or paracetamol," said Dr. Erlington.