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?

It does have an effect on mild pains like headache or period pain. I don't think the recommended dose is high enough to really be effective for serious pain. If you ever have an operation they give you paracetamol as a pre-med at a higher dose than given over the counter.

Paracetamol is not a placebo, its a deadly poison.

I give it to my kids in appropriate doses and it seems to help, but it has always just given me far worse pain and other symptoms, so I avoid it.

I don't like that it is held up as the go to drug for pain relief, as I can't be the only one that is badly affected, but I have never heard of any others.

IV paracetamol brought me back from the brink from a very, very unpleasant infection. Equally, an overdose is a slow, horrible, and irreversible way to die.

YABU.

co-codamol is the best painkiller for nasty pain like migraine or tootheache

I have always found paracetamol to be very good. Not as good as voltarol though.

I had all 4 wisdom teeth out a couple of months ago and wasn't prescribed any painkillers-just told to go buy paracetamol and ibuprofen and alternate every 2 hours.
The ibuprofen didn't do much but the paracetamol? Wonder drug! I went from pacing the house crying in pain to comfortable enough to sleep in 15 mins. The cheap stuff is just as good as branded too.

Yes I take it for migraines, the anti inflammatory in it is great. Very undervalued.

2 paracetamol does absolutely nothing for me. I assume it's because the dosage is too low because I'm overweight (dosage is usually based on weight, isn't it?)

I've had it as a drip it was fast and amazing, Coulndt believe it. Normally it does nothing!

It's a brilliant medicine especially for reducing temps

Works for me.

I've found it useful for period pain, hangovers, flu and pulled muscles. Ibuprofen is better for me and that's our family's goto pain relief, but paracetamol certainly seems to have an impact. I've never tested either against a placebo, so I may just be kidding myself.

Studies of painkillers make interesting reading, we appear not to have really cracked that nut and whenever I read reviews I'm quite glad for how effective I find them and feel that even if it's a placebo effect that's fine by me. But if I wasn't finding it effective I'd probably want to stop taking them, there's growing evidence that, even at the recommended dosage, paracetamol may have side effects after all.

It doesn't work for me or the kids in terms of pain but does work for fever reduction although still not as well as ibuprofen.

I work in theatre recovery,when IV paracetamol was introduced we thought it would be rubbish
We were wrong.
It is surprisingly good and can be used along side other analgesics .
In shorter operations it is now given as a tablet before the operation.This works just as well and is less costly.
If you don't believe you will get pain relief from anything then the placebo effect may be that it won't.People who have no idea what you are giving them tell us it worked.
Before using it like this I would be with the non believers except for fever.Instead of thinking paracetamol does not work think what is causing the pain and choose what works for you.

I don't tolerate most painkillers well as the side effects are worse than the pain
I manage ok with paracaetamol and have found it iv ok for major surgery even - opiate based drugs make be so ill I'd rather be in agony

I use it for temperatures and general muscle aches.

I heard that paracetamol is less effective in women than men. Drug trials are usually done on men (because women's hormones go up and down all the time) so doctors aren't aware that paracetamol is useless for women. @shovellerDuck what nonsense. Where on earth did you get that from. I can can assure you that is just not true. Women's fluctuating hormones are not a factor l in any drug trial.

After the first (of many) major surgeries I was given IV paracetamol and was shocked. Where was the good stuff!!?
But, it totally worked. And so much gentler on you overall than opiates.
Couldn't really believe I was on only paracetamol and nurofen tablets within days of surgery. And you notice if you miss a dose, so it was clearly working.

Here's a blog on some of the best available evidence on paracetamol www.evidentlycochrane.net/paracetamol-widely-used-ineffective/

Paracetamol works for me on mild pain.

As for it being a placebo, try taking vast quantities of it. I think when your liver fails you would disagree that it's only a placebo.

It always seems to work well for me.

Absolutely not. I don't take it often but when my gran was dying of cancer it was like a wonder drug when all the morphine in the world wasn't helping. I'd thought the same as the op, that it wasn't great, but this experience gave me a new found respect for it.

I rarely take painkillers myself fortunately but I need ibuprofen for cramps as paracetamol doesn't work well for those.

Works well for me on headaches - only one needed and clear within 15 minutes or so.
Useless for sports injuries, post-operative pain etc.