• Question: how do painkillers effectively reduce pain

    Asked by anon-227008 to William, Thibaut "Tibo", Harry, Georgia, Emily, Aimee on 14 Nov 2019.
    • Photo: Aimee Egglestone

      Aimee Egglestone answered on 14 Nov 2019:

      It depends on the painkiller! Things like Ibuprofen and Aspirin change just the way you react to pain signals from your body, they also reduce swelling so in some cases they reduce the cause of the pain (eg tonsilitis)! On the other hand stronger ones like codeine actually stop the pain signals your body is sending to your brain from ever reaching it!

    • Photo: Georgia Orton

      Georgia Orton answered on 16 Nov 2019:

      Great answer from Aimee! Interestingly we still don’t completely understand how paracetamol works, but it seems to block the pain signals to the brain.

    • Photo: Thibaut Deviese

      Thibaut Deviese answered on 16 Nov 2019:

      When part of your body is injured, special nerve endings send pain messages back to your brain. Painkilling drugs interfere with these messages, either at the site of the injury, in the spinal cord or in the brain itself. Many painkillers are based on one of two naturally occurring drugs: aspirin and opiates. Aspirin uses a chemical found in willow bark, used by the Ancient Greeks to relieve pain. Opiates all work in a similar way to opium, which is extracted from poppies.

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