Whether headache, menstrual discomfort or a distressing Pull in the Tooth: to be on pain attacks prepared, hoarding a lot of over-the-counter available medicines at home. What should pain sufferers in mind when taking? The most important questions and answers.
How to work for the pain at all?
The mechanisms of action depend on the type of the pain by means of:
Over-the-counter pain relievers such as Ibuprofen, Aspirin and Diclofenac are among the so-called non-opioid analgesics. They inhibit the production of certain chemical messengers, which are involved in the transmission and perception of pain in the brain. Since these also play a role in inflammation, the funds are also antipyretic and anti-inflammatory.
There are also opioid-containing painkillers, which, however, usually prescribed, and in severe acute or chronic pain be used. Opioids, which include endorphins, are the body’s own substances with analgesic effect. They contribute, among other things, that people feel a shock is often no pain.
Painkillers with artificial opioids be able to dock at the same Places in the body like the natural opioids, and may also have mood-elevating or calming. Thus, they represent enormous potential for dependence. In the US, this has been long underestimated, the drugs were prescribed by Doctors too easily. As a result, Opioid epidemic is.
There is a habituation effect?
“Yes, and this is a real Problem,” says Thomas Isenberg, managing Director of the German pain society in Berlin. According to his information, every second adult within four weeks of the attacks almost at least once to prescription painkillers. The taking successes also often too long.
“Up to a third of the users of pain medications, application of recommendations,” says Isenberg know. The prolonged use of analgesics without medical advice can lead to a habituation effect, and this poses many health risks.
How long should I take pain killers at a time?
“That depends,” explains Ulrich R. Fölsch, specialist in Internal medicine and gastroenterology in Kiel. It makes a difference whether you know where the pain – such as headaches after a night of drinking, or whether one of the causes of the pain are unclear.
“It is wrong to, for example, have stomach pain without knowing the cause and then to take more than one pain pill without medical advice”, says Fölsch, who is also the Secretary General of the German society for Internal medicine. That’s because the abdominal pain can hide about an appendicitis, needs to be treated urgently.
In the case of pain, the cause is clear – for example, as a rule, complaints -, the rule-of-thumb: no more than three days in a row and ten days in the month without medical advice.
Why can’t you take even over-the-counter available pain killers indefinitely?
“It must be clear: pain is a warning signal of the body”, says Fölsch. Instead of discomfort with painkillers, press permanently, it is advisable to go to and their causes and treat them specifically.
You will be taken too often, can pain reliever also headaches. Often this leads to a vicious circle: Because the cause of the headache is not aware of, try the Affected to combat the problems with other pain pills. Especially often the people who are affected already suffer from migraine or tension headaches. About one to two percent of European adults have studies indicate that the number of headache due to Medication overuse.
Add to that: Also over-the-counter available pain killers can have unwanted side effects. Depending on the drug, you can damage, among other things, of the mucous membrane in the stomach and intestines or the risk for gastrointestinal bleeding may increase. Other means to burden the liver, kidneys or the cardiovascular System. “Prolonged ingestion of some prescription increase free painkillers in the case of predisposed patients, even the risk for a heart attack or stroke,” warns Isenberg. A glance in the pack is worth Supplement.
What is true in the case of children?
“Not every over-the-counter available pain relievers are suitable for everyone,” emphasized Ursula seller mountain of the Federal chamber of pharmacists in Berlin. Patients should therefore by your doctor or in the pharmacy for advice. As a pharmacist advise, as a rule, to give children and younger adolescents, preparations with acetylsalicylic acid (the active ingredient of Aspirin) without a doctor’s recommendation.
The reason: SPERM is suspected, in rare cases, the so-called Reye’s syndrome trigger. In the process, brain and liver damage, the disease can even be fatal. Ibuprofen, however, can correctly dosed, and administered even in small children.
What to consider in the case of the simultaneous intake of analgesics with other drugs and alcohol?
Best patients prior to put your medication plan in the pharmacy, if you are an over-the-counter available pain want to buy funds. “So the pharmacist can identify possible interactions, and assess the level of over-the-counter pain relievers for the patient is correct,” says seller mountain.
And painkillers and alcohol? “This is a dangerous combination that should best be avoided”, says Fölsch.
