Are we taking more painkillers than we should? Dr Timothy Steiner, a dry, precise man and consultant physiologist at Charing Cross hospital in London, thinks so. He believes that one in 30 people suffer chronic daily headaches as a result of painkiller overuse. So what constitutes overuse? In a paper on headaches published in the British Medical Journal last year, Steiner wrote that it was hard to generalise, although "the regular intake of three or more analgesic tablets daily on more than two days a week are suggested arbitrary limits". He won't quite say that "medication overuse headache" is something the pharmaceutical industry is reluctant to explore. What he does say is that when the Proprietary Association of Great Britain (PAGB), which represents the pharmaceutical companies that make over-the-counter medicines, set up a working party to investigate the possibility that painkillers might be causing headaches, the working party was disbanded. That was in July 2000. Steiner looks at me as if to say: this is a fact; you can make of it what you will.
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As Steiner says, "There is a lack of education about what painkillers are. They are medicines, which have effects that are wanted, and a variety of unwanted effects." These unwanted effects can include gastrointestinal bleeding, stomach ulcers, kidney and liver failure. Taking a painkiller might also encourage you to exercise when you shouldn't, aggravating existing injuries. In 2000, a report published by scientists working in Oxford and Geneva estimated that 2,000 people a year were dying in Britain as a consequence of long-term painkiller misuse; Andrew Moore of the Oxford chronic pain clinic, who co-authored the report, estimated that side-effects and treatment arising from long-term prescription aspirin and ibuprofen use were costing the NHS between 170m and 250m a year.
William Leith GuardianUK April 26, 2003long thorough article on painkillers, addiction and side effects and pharmco deceit.
