to wonder who buys actual Neurofen or Anadin and why?

[TaggieCampbellBlack]

When the brand stuff costs £££££ but the same stuff in a non-name or value box costs 16p?

Why would you? I don't gettit

No - don't take aspirin and ibuprofen together. They are the same kind of drug.

(Paracetamol OR cocodamol )PLUS (Ibuprofen OR Aspirin )are ok to combine. Assuming you tolerate all of them etc.

Sudafed is just a decongestant. The one in a blue box but you can only buy it from a pharmacy.

Ok firstly PARAMOL IS NOT IBUPROFEN trade name nurophen.
Secondly there is a significant difference between PARAMOL and CO CODAMOL. Both contain 500mg of PARACETAMOL and both contain CODEINE however with the two types of CODEINE are very different. CO CODAMOL contains CODEINE PHOSPATE which is a very weak opioid and PARAMOL contains CODEINE TARTATE which when in the body breaks down metabolically to MORPHINE a very strong opioid. Both 30mg

You do realise this thread is over 4 years old???

Yes I buy generic everything (paracetomol , ibuprofen and co codamol)

Not everyone is a pain killer junkie like me though

Why would someone bump a four year old ZOMBIE thread to post this?

there's two different types of cocodamol though isn't there?
The only one available otc is 8/500, 30/500 is only available on prescription.
I had to tell my mil that nurofen
and ibrophen were the same thing. She wouldn't believe me till i showed her the ingredients.
I have spent a little extra on liquid ibrophen, when pains really bad and my pills aren't touching it, but i wait till it's on offer in the pharmacy

I buy Anadin Extra as it's the only thing that shifts my headaches. I've never been able to find a generic paracetamol/aspirin/caffeine combo.

My husband does. Argh. The fool!

I buy the small rounded pills as I really struggle to swallow tablets. The generics tend to be very basic tablet shape or capsule. It's not effective if you can't keep it down!

I've never bought a brand in my life I am too tight

The ones I hate are the prescribed Tranexamic Acid tablets. If you manage to keep them in the blister pack for more than a day without them all breaking and crumbling in your handbag this is a miracle. Then trying to take them all crumbled up is also challenging. They are annoying

I buy Anadin extra as it's the only thing that works on my migraines apart from triptans (but only sometimes in the right situation.)

I don't care if this is a weird pharma bot zombie thread. Anadin Extra is the bomb. (Dispersible version even better)

You can also get Loperamide as a generic instead of Immodium

Oh I read all the way through without realising it was a zombie! Argh.

I think lots of people don't realise what generics are.

The only time I ever wrote a letter to a magazine was to Marie Claire when they had a feature on what you must make sure to buy when you visit the US. This included Tylenol as it doesn't exist in the UK, and is such an amazing painkiller, why don't we have it here as it works so fast, bring loads of it back and stockpile it etc.

I just had to point out that the active ingredient in Tylenol is acetaminophen.....the US name for paracetamol.

They didn't print my letter

Anadin Extra is the bomb. (Dispersible version even better)

Really? Why? I'd always assumed the tablets would work better/faster. Is that not the case?

I used to buy the brand named Max Strength Cold & Flu capsules until one day I got Sainsbury's own and read they contained the same medications in the same dose. All the supermarkets do their own and there is no difference apart from prices.

Isn't the placebo effect with homeopathy said to be that you have a longer appointment with a practitioner who is trying to sell you stuff so you come out feeling unhurried, like you have been listened to and had your worries taken seriously, more so than at a 5 mins GP appointment? I'd guess paying for the appointment has some effect as well, just like paying more for branded products.

I buy generic cheap ones unless I need a stronger painkiller then I get solphadeine max which I think is the strongest otc available.

@WhatToDoAboutThis2017 I think the dispersible stuff gets into your bloodstream quicker. When I get paracetamol (on its own or with codeine or caffeine) I always get dispersible ones.

I bought their pain relief gel recently but only because the pharmacist said it is actually better than the Boots version. The rest of what I bought that day was Boots versions.

I really woke up to the price difference while living overseas and getting antibiotics for the toddler DDs. £70 for the prescribed brand and the pharmacist suggested a generic alternative that was only £40.

IamHereButAreYouThere Oh roght, thanks! I'll try them in future as I need them to work fast if they have a chance at working at all.

I buy the no name brand for myself but I do buy nurofen medicine for my DDs. The reason is that they like the strawberry flavour and so will happily have it when needed whereas the chemist's own brand is a different flavour and they won't touch it!

The only time we've ever bought Nurofen was as hungover students when we needed pain killers and we could barely drag ourselves to the garage across the street, never mind hunt out a supermarket.

Agree that the generic is every bit as good. We pay something like 16p for paracetamol and 25p for ibuprofen.

Hospitals use generics too - I was discharged after major abdominal surgery with generic cocodamol and ibuprofen, not Nurofen and other branded painkillers.

@ BelW "there is a significant difference between PARAMOL and CO CODAMOL. Both contain 500mg of PARACETAMOL and both contain CODEINE however with the two types of CODEINE are very different. CO CODAMOL contains CODEINE PHOSPATE which is a very weak opioid and PARAMOL contains CODEINE TARTATE which when in the body breaks down metabolically to MORPHINE a very strong opioid. Both 30mg"

No. Codeine is codeine regardless of the salt it's used as - this may have a tiny effect in solubility but little else. Codeine Phosphate and Codeine Tartrate are both converted by the liver to morphene, so there really isn't a difference betweencodeine tartrate and codeine phosphate

You'll also not get 30mg codeine over the counter in the uk either. That's prescription only strength.

An equivalent dose of codeine may have different mg weights depending on the salt, a tartrate will look like more as the tartrate is heavier than the phosphate (similarly to how Ibuprofen lysine is 342 mg but Ibuprofen is 200mg - the weight of the active ingredient is the same.

I buy the branded ones as I can't seem to swallow I coated ones. I always used to buy unbranded ones (unbranded Anadin Extra) but then Tesco and Asda stopped coating them and I couldn't swallow them. I'd rather pay the extra than have them stuck in my mouth starting to dissolve.