Have you ever had a pain that just would not go away no matter what over the counter medication you tried? A new study posted to Ivanhoe.com on September 7, 2011 tells us that science may have finally solved the mystery of pain and which pain relievers may work best.

“Pain relief doesn’t have to be a mystery. There is a body of reliable evidence about how well 46 different drug/dose combinations work against acute pain, but the review also shows there are many examples of drugs for which there is insufficient evidence, and the drugs in question should probably not be used to treat acute pain,” Dr. Moore was quoted as saying. “Our aim was to bring all this information together, and to report the results for those drugs with reliable evidence about how well they work or any harm they may do in single oral doses.”

Doctor Andrew Moore of the Oxford Pain Research Unit at Oxford University searched 35 Cochrane Reviews of randomized trials that studied different pain medications and how well they worked. The study which encompassed 45,000 post operative patients discovered that pain relief is in the eye of the beholder.

“If the first pain killer a person tries doesn’t seem to be working, then a doctor should look to find an alternative reliable drug and see if it is more effective in that individual patient. There are plenty of options that have solid evidence base,” Dr. Moore was quoted as saying.

According to the study some common meds worked better then others for some people but some simply missed the mark completely.

Codeine for instance although regularly prescribed for pain relief was rarely effective with only about 14% of the study group getting adequate relief from it. Although other drugs fared a little better, such as 1000mg aspirin and 600mg paracetamol at 35% benefitted. However in some cases over 70 percent of participants with moderate to severe acute pain achieved good pain relief, such as taking a single-dose of 120mg etoricoxib, or the combination of 200mg paracetamol plus 500mg ibuprofen.

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