Tell your doctor if you use anything else that makes you sleepy.Triptan medicine to treat migraine headaches.Medicine to treat depression (including bupropion, fluoxetine, paroxetine, quinidine).Amiodarone, carbamazepine, erythromycin, ketoconazole, mirtazapine, phenytoin, quinidine, rifampin, ritonavir, tramadol, trazodone.Tell your doctor if you are using any of the following: Some medicines can affect how this medicine works.Do not use this medicine if you are using or have used an MAO inhibitor within the past 14 days.Talk to your pharmacist or GP, or call NHS 111 if you need more advice on painkillers.Ask your doctor or pharmacist before using any other medicine, including over-the-counter medicines, vitamins, and herbal products. These drugs should only be used as part of a long-term plan to manage your pain.įind out about the NHS help on offer if you have persistent pain Further advice on painkillers The dose and your response will be closely monitored. They'll only be prescribed after consultation with a doctor or a pain specialist.
Morphine and morphine-like drugs (such as oxycodone, fentanyl and buprenorphine) are the strongest painkillers there are.ĭepending on your individual circumstances, these types of painkiller may be prescribed as a patch, an injection, or sometimes in a pump you control yourself.īut they all work in similar ways and should only be used for severe pain. Side effects include drowsiness and dizziness. You do not have to have depression or epilepsy for these tablets to help your nerve pain.Īmitriptyline and gabapentin both have to be prescribed by a GP. Amitriptyline and gabapentinĪmitriptyline is a drug for depression and gabapentin is a drug for epilepsy.Įach of these medicines can also be used to treat pain caused by nerve sensitivity or nerve damage, such as shingles, diabetes, nerve pain and sciatica. You may want to consider switching to a non-effervescent painkiller, especially if you have been advised to watch or reduce your salt intake. Too much salt can raise your blood pressure, which puts you at increased risk of health problems like heart disease and stroke. Soluble painkillersĮffervescent painkillers are high in salt, containing up to 1g per tablet.
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If you're worried that you may have become dependent on painkillers, contact your GP or another healthcare professional for advice. This could then make it difficult for you to stop taking them. It's not recommended to take codeine or other medium-strength prescribed painkillers on a long-term basis as this could lead to you becoming dependent on them. Higher-dose codeine has to be prescribed. You can buy co-codamol (paracetamol and low-dose codeine) over the counter. It works better when combined with paracetamol in a single pill. CodeineĬodeine does not work very well on its own. There's a possible link between aspirin and Reye's syndrome in children. Never give aspirin to a child younger than 16 unless their doctor prescribes it. It produces the same kind of side effects as other NSAIDs, but is not as effective as a painkiller, which means it's not usually prescribed for pain. Paracetamol is the recommended alternative in pregnancy. Pregnant women should not take ibuprofen unless a doctor recommends and prescribes it. If you take them for long periods, there's an increased risk of stomach upset, including bleeding, and kidney and heart problems.ĭo not take more than the recommended dose, as this will increase the risk of serious side effects. They should not be used for long periods unless you have discussed it with your doctor. Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), such as ibuprofen, diclofenac and naproxen, seem to work better when there's clear evidence of an inflammatory cause, such as arthritis or an injury.
If the pain lasts for more than 3 days, see your GP.įind out more about paracetamol Ibuprofen Overdosing on paracetamol can cause serious side effects, however, so do not be tempted to increase the dose if your pain is severe. Two 500mg tablets of paracetamol up to 4 times a day is a safe dose for adults (never take more than 8 tablets in a 24-hour period). Paracetamol is used to treat headaches and most non-nerve pains. All painkillers have potential side effects, so you need to weigh up the advantages of taking them against the disadvantages. The aim of taking medication is to improve your quality of life. If the pain is caused by sensitive or damaged nerves, as is the case with shingles or sciatica, it's usually treated with tablets that change the way the central nervous system works. The type of medicines that you need to treat your pain depend on what type of pain you have.įor pain associated with inflammation, such as back pain or headaches, paracetamol and anti-inflammatory painkillers work best.