To think paracetamol is just a placebo?

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I have taken many over the course of my life, for a variety of different types of pain, mainly headache. However, I can't ever recall an occasion where paracetamol made the slightest bit of difference!!

Is it just a placebo!!?? A big con???

Or are some people simply not susceptible to it?

I've seen people go through radiotherapy for mouth cancer on 2 paracetamol 4 x a day, ie a proper adult dose. So I believe it works. I've also seen people established on regular paracetamol start codeine, get going on that and stop the paracetamol, only to fall to bits. Yes it works and it has a role. I have far more respect for it as a drug now that I do this job.

Paracetamol can be very effective, however it works best when taken regularly and at the full dose, i.e. two 500mg tablets. A lot of people take a half dose and then wonder why it's not working. It also needs to be taken regularly to keep the levels of it in the blood high enough to treat the pain. Again, another common mistake is that people will miss a dose, or only take it when the first dose has worn off and the pain is back. Obviously you don't want to overdose on the stuff, but if you follow the recommend dosages then it is very effective.

According to a Cochrane Review - an evidence based study - there is no evidence that paracetemol works for back pain.

The Cochrane review is unequivocal – it doesn’t work. Not immediately, not later. At no stage between one and 12 weeks is 4,000 mg daily any better than a placebo. Nor does the review find any evidence that it works in chronic back pain either. The results were heavily dependent on one impeccable, large, randomised trial that described average pain intensity dropping steadily with paracetamol or placebo from over 6/10 points (severe pain) at the start of the trial to 3.7 at week 1 (moderate pain), 2.6 by week 2 (mild pain), and then 1.2 by week 12 (mild pain).

Anecdotally, it has never helped me with pain at all. Agree with PP that bringing down fever is a different matter. Unfortunately paracetamol, despite not working for most people as pain relief, especially for women, is the first drug on the pain relief ladder so no NHS practitioner will give you anything that actually works until you have downed the useless paracetamol first (which also makes me feel sick, personally). i understand part of the reason for that is that it does indeed make other analgesics more effective and potent. But there still seems little point taking JUST paracetamol for pain relief.

It definitely works for me. For muscular pain, headaches, colds - all sorts.

I wouldn't take half a dose of any other medication and then be surprised it didn't work.

Also, your question strikes me as illogical. You say it doesn't work for you. Is that because you've never believed it to be a painkiller?

If it's a placebo, then by definition it works.

Paracetamol is good for helping to reduce temperatures. I've seen it work when it's given to patients. It also works on mild pain but nothing else imo.

I think you either get a result from paracetamol or ibuprofen. I've always been more ibuprofen.

I'm on a prescription of eight paracetamol per day for arthritis. I often forget about the later doses but the first two of the day are necessary to get moving.

Definitely works for me. But I don't take it very often.

Gotta be Solpadeine for me, the one that dissolves. If that doesn't work, then I'm not gonna shift the pain. Paracetamol on it's own is a waste of time. In fact Panadol sometimes malesy headache worse...

I rarely get headaches and don't have bad period pain or things like that, luckily, so my experience of painkillers is more specific trauma situations. I have found paracetamol very effective in pain management for surgery (excisions of moles and similar wounds for demmatology surgery requiring large numbers of stitches) and for a broken and dislocated toe. I also found it effective for episiotomy pain management. I could feel the pain intensify before a dose was due (including being woken with the pain) and then recede after I'd taken the next dose. In all those cases though, it was pain that I was managing from the very beginning, which is a different situation I suppose from a headache growing gradually worse and worse until you decide to treat it.

I think because it is cheap and easily available, people "pop" paracetamol and don't respect it as a pain killer. I have no idea of the scientific evidence but I've found it very helpful.

There's a condition called Gilbert's Syndrome. Dd has it. Amongst other things, it means you can't absorb paracetamol as it's broken down in the liver.

I'm glad I don't have it. Morphine does nothing for me. I had one dose of it following a c-section and then asked to take the cannula out as it wasn't working. I just had paracetamol for a day or so.

IV paracetamol is the dog's bollocks
I had major knee surgery and it really helped.
I'm a palliative care nurse - Paracetamol is an underestimated as an analgesic psychologically - because it can be bought over the counter.
Research shows that Paracetamol enhances the effect of Morphine. We always encourage our patients who are able to still take their regular Paracetamol. For bone pain it's particularly effective.

adding in paracetamol to ibuprofen style painkillers really works for period pain for me. Just one or the other doesn't work.

I find it works but only when taken regularly. When I was pregnant I took it for months (on medical advice) for pelvic pain and it took the edge off.

It works well for me for period pain but not headaches. I get dreadful tension headaches and the only thing that works for them is cocodamol.

I've never really round ibuprofen does much.

Paracetamol has to be taken regularly I believe to build up the effect. Ibuprofen has the quickest effect on me if I just need a one off hit.

My husband takes one and then wonders why it doesn't work. The standard dose is two 500mg and you can go a lot higher if prescribed.

Why he thinks taking one would do anything I don't know.

No
Works for me except toothache nothing touches that fucker

Works very well for me for some things - period pain, certain types of headaches.

Interested to see what MedSchoolRat said, as like her I have comparatively low blood pressure and poor circulation.

Can't take ibuprofen due to serve asthma

It doesn’t quite work for me unless it’s mixed with codeine. It’s great for severe period pains I have.

Ibuprofen with codeine does not have the same effect, weirdly so it must be that paracetamol with codeine just works better.

On its own it does little so for lesser pains and aches, I always take fast acting ibuprofen with lysine and that does the trick.

It depends on the type of pain. When my joints ache or I have a fever it works. Last week it didn't touch a headache but ibuprofen eased it.