Strongest OTC painkiller?

[Sugarnspicenallthingsnaice]

I'm heading back to the UK for a holiday shortly, and due to an injury will need some pain relief, particularly for the very long flight home.

It's been years and years since I've needed to buy anything from a UK chemist and I'm wondering what's available without prescription? Is there anything with paracetamol + codeine?

Co-codamol is paracetamol and codeine. It’s the strongest over the counter painkiller that you can get in the UK.

Cocodamol is paracetamol and codeine
Nurofen plus has ibuprofen and codeine

You can also buy Ibuprofen and Codeine, depending on what might work better for your injury.

Solpadiene max is 500mg paracetamol and 12.4mg codiene. That's the strongest otc one you can get

Brilliant! Thank you.

I can't buy codeine OTC at home so that saves me an expensive GP visit before I go.

Do you have to go through some sort of interrogation to get it?

(If not I will stock up while there!)

They'll only let you buy a limited amount. I can't remember what the limit is though sorry.

No but they do ask if you're on any other medication and ask what it's for

You need to buy from a pharmacy as its not on the shelf like plain paracetamol/ibuprofen and likely can only buy 1 or max 2 boxes at a time.

No interrogation to but it but you might need to visit a few pharmacies and get one in each.
paracetamol and codeine at 12.8mg £9.80
ibruprofen and codeine at 12.8mg £10.80
These are Boots pharmacy current prices
ask me how I know

Is the codeine with paracetamol not only 8mg?

I bought my brother some cocodamol and it was only about £3.49 for 32 at my local pharmacy

The OTC codeine & paracetamol is a very low dosage. If you're used to taking codeine it may not be strong enough.

The OTC is 8mg codeine. The ones you get prescribed are 30mg

Regular cocodamol is, but solpadeine max is 12.8mg codeine per 500mg paracetamol. And Nurofen plus is 12.8 codeine with 200mg ibuprofen. There are also non-brand name versions of each at this strength, all OTC at pharmacies.

If it’s not available where you live do be very cautious about taking it back. Any form of opiates can cause issues in many countries that are much less lax about selling it than UK.

They will ask you if it's for yourself, if you've taken it before, and tell you that you shouldn't take it for more than 3 days running

You won't be able to buy more than a packet or two at a time.

If you can't buy it OTC at home, can you take it back with you without a prescription?

Solpadine Max is 12.8mg - I know because I take 60 mg (2 x 30mg codeine from the GP) and if I put my repeat prescription in late I have to buy that (obviously not as good!)

The normal cocodamol (8mg) one is relatively cheap £3/4 a packet. I have cancer and buy a lot of it! Only one packet at a time, though I could probably pull the cancer card and get 2 if I needed. I think for an injury, which should be more temporary, they will be less keen to sell multiple packs. When necessary, I just breeze through all the pharmacies on the high street in one swoop and then I’m good for awhile. 😂

Wouldn’t it just be easier to bring whatever you usually use with you?

I get mine for pain - knee issues and sciatica- from the GP which the dose is 2x 30mg (my asthma prevents me from taking aspirin or NSAIDs) . I would hope for cancer they could give you the same!

Be careful with co codamol...I get awful constipation when i take it.

Nope, in Australia we now need a prescription just for the 8mg version. Very annoying.

Don’t be surprised if it becomes prescription only here too because of the number of people abusing it. It’s a shame for the people who are using it sensibly. Codeine linctus was recently withdrawn so only a matter of time…

Anything with codeine in bungs me up so badly I feel as though my bum is falling out (hemorrhoids!). When I had mastectomy, I took 2 paracetamol then 2 ibuprofen 2 hrs later, continued with this pattern and the cumulative effect deadened the pain amazingly. I wrote the times down so I didn't get confused. Popping a couple of pills when you're in proper pain is hopeless, get a routine going with no addiction and no constipation.