Pain relievers in a nutshell.**

1. Aspirin: Originally derived from willow bark
2. Acetaminophen (or paracetemol): Tylenol
3. Ibuprofen: Advil, Motrin, etc
4. Naproxen sodium: Aleve, Naprosyn

1) Most people are familiar with aspirin--it's been around forever. It's an a fever reducer, an anti-inflammatory* (reduces swelling) and an analgesic (relieves pain).

The Good: It's got a very long history of safety and, recently, it's made new fame as a useful blood thinner.

The Bad: It's been linked to Reye's Syndrome in children and teens, it can bug some people's stomachs (although coated, or enteric, aspirin seems to help), and then there's the blood thinning aspect. It can be a double edged sword.

2) Acetaminophen (called paracetemol across The Pond) has also been around a while. It's a fever reducer and analgesic--no anti-inflammatory action here.

The Good: Safe for kids, babies, pregnant/nursing women. Pretty much safe all around.

The Bad: A lot of people feel it isn't very effective. The biggest thing is that now there's speculation that at dosages over 4 extra strength caplets per day, serious liver damage can result. This is also seen when people take Tylenol during/after drinking alcohol.

3) Ibuprofen. This is the main reason I am writing this missive. Advil, Children's Advil/Motrin, Medipren, Motrin, Nuprin, Pediacare Fever etc. It's all the same drug. Motrin can't work better than Advil because Motrin IS ADVIL! It's all the same stuff!!!!!

Okay, so, ibuprofen is also an NSAID. It used to be restricted to kids over 12, but not anymore.

The Good: It's an NSAID.

The Bad: I'm not really aware of too much bad about it, other than its obvious drug-ness, although I have heard that people with asthma sometimes are bothered by ibuprofen,

4) Naproxen sodium was prescription-only for a long time (Naprosyn, Anaprox, Naprelan). Now, it's available over the counter as Aleve (the little blue ovals). Apparently you get to take fewer of them per day, but for me, Aleve never works. Really.

The Good: It's an NSAID

The Bad: Some of the same problems with the other NSAIDs, including increased stomach/bleeding issues.

The Miscellaneous

• Extra-Strength Excedrin and Excedrin Migraine are the exact same thing. 250 mg aspirin, 250 mg acetaminophen, and 65 mg caffeine. The Excedrin company got permission from the FDA to market the same drug in 2 different ways. Maybe the migraine version works better for you? It's probably psychosomatic, but as long as the headache goes away, who cares if it's psychomatic. (Just don't buy it b/c they say it's different--it's not)
• Vicodin is acetaminophen plus hydrocodone (a drug in the codeine family)
• Vicoprofen is prescription ibuprofen plus hydrocodone
• Percocet is a acetaminophen plus oxycodone (aka Oxycontin), which I found didn't really work all that well. Things still hurt, I just didn't care as much as I did 5 minutes ago. But, I digress.
• Percodan is aspirin plus oxycodone and so on and so forth. Just like artificial sweetners, there are a few main ones and then they start mixing them together to make new stuff.

There, pain relievers in a nutshell.

*These anti-inflammatorys are called NSAIDs. Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. Meaning that they're not steroids (like prednisone), but they have some of the same reduces-swelling-and-inflammation properties.

NSAIDs block prostaglandins, which are the chemicals the body releases upon injury (among other times). NSAIDs are great for injuries, sore throats, sunburns, and all kinds of aches and pains. Not so good for pregnant or nursing mothers.

**No, this is pain relievers in a nutshell. "help, I'm i'm in a bloody great nutshell"