Best Pain Medications

 

Recently, many medical societies have made a big push on reducing the use of narcotics. In ear, nose, and throat surgeries, we really try to stay away from certain medications that can thin the blood because of the high risk of bleeding in several surgeries such as nasal surgery or tonsillitis. I’ve taken it as a bit of a challenge to look and see exactly what other medications are out there and whether research shows if they are as good as opioids such as hydrocodone (Vicodin). What I found surprised me.

There’s at least some research that shows that one extra strength Tylenol (500 mg) and one 200 mg ibuprofen works better than a dose of codeine. If you look at the chart below, it is from a huge research study done in the UK. It’s a chart of how many hours before patients requested another dose of a pain medication after just one dose (and sorry, but Etoricoxib isn’t available in the US!).

Tylenol or acetaminophen is the same medication as paracetamol. Look where the 500 dose of paracetamol combined with the 200 dose of ibuprofen stands on the chart. It’s not at the top, but it’s way above several medications that I would think it would be weaker than. And obviously I would not necessarily say that one study means that narcotics have no role. But the fact that codeine is so close to the bottom would clearly indicate that we need to start thinking about using meds that we already have access to and are safe to take before jumping into taking a drug that has more side effects and may not work as well. So next time you have a bad headache instead of taking two acetaminophen or two ibuprofen, take one of each and see if that works better.

 

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Daily LifeErin Shellenbergersurgery, pain medication