Pain relief medications are one of the most frequently used drugs. People use them to relieve headaches, back pain, tooth pain etc. There are three types of these drugs that are described in this article.

Painkillers are drugs that help relieve pain and are generally referred to as analgesics. They work by interfering with the nervous system’s transmission of nerve signals, which we perceive as pain. Pain, in its turn, is a protective mechanism of the body that alerts the brain when damage has occurred. Pain is unpleasant and annoying, but usually short-lived, for example, when you have burnt yourself or have had a fall. Painkillers are used in such cases to ease the pain until it gets better, or they can be used for arthritis or related conditions during flare-ups.

There is a large number of painkillers available on the market today and they all come under different brand names and various pharmaceutical forms. They can be taken orally as tablets, capsules and liquids, given as injection or via back passage as suppositories. Some of the painkillers are available as gels, creams and ointments.

In spite of the fact that such a large number of painkillers is available, all of them fall only into 3 main categories:

Simple non-opioid analgesics – the most common form of painkillers, also including NSAIDs, such as Ibuprofen, Paracetamol and Aspirin. All of them are used for treating mild to moderate pain, except for Aspirin, which is also used in low doses to prevent blood from clotting.

Compound analgesics – a combination of several drugs in one tablet, for example Co-codamol (Paracetamol + Codeine), used to treat mild to moderate pain or alongside NSAIDs.

Opioid analgesics – the strongest type of painkillers for treating moderate to severe pain. Opioids can be weak, such as Codeine, and strong, such as Morphine. Strong opioids or opiates are mainly used in hospitals to relive pain after surgery or cancer-induced pain, and are available by prescription only. Most of the other painkillers are available in free sale and you can purchase them at pharmacies and supermarkets, or buy drugs online.

You don’t have to wait until your pain is severe to take pain-killers. Use them as your doctor advises or as the packet suggests. Some analgesics can be taken as preventive measure, for example, before exercising to avoid getting back pain.

While painkillers rarely cause serious side effects, they should be taken for the shortest possible time and in lowest possible doses that control you pain.

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