Pain not only affects people’s quality of life, but long-term pain can also cause mental illness. If the patient is not treated in time, long-term generalized local pain will become a complex central pain or local pain syndrome, and then become a more difficult painful disease. Therefore, after pain occurs, patients should take painkillers in time. However, painkillers cannot be eaten indiscriminately. If used incorrectly, they will not only have no analgesic effect, but also cause damage to the body. The following will introduce you to the misunderstandings of taking painkillers and the dangers of abuse of painkillers.
Common analgesics are narcotic analgesics, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, and central analgesics. Among them, the analgesic ability of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs is weak, and it is suitable for patients with mild pain. If the pain is severe, patients need to use central analgesics. Such analgesics can inhibit the reabsorption of norepinephrine and serotonin and other neurotransmitters, and promote the body to release serotonin.
Myths about taking painkillers
1. Drink alcohol after taking painkillers. Some patients drink alcohol after taking analgesics that understand heat analgesics, which will aggravate the symptoms of adverse reactions. Common antipyretic and analgesic analgesics include ibuprofen and aspirin, which have certain damage to the gastric mucosa. If the patient drinks alcohol after taking the medicine, the damage of the gastric mucosa becomes worse under the dual action of alcohol and drugs, which may cause diseases such as gastric perforation, stomach bleeding, and gastric ulcer.
2. Only take the medicine when there is pain, increase or decrease the dosage and stop using it at will. No matter what medicine you take, you need to take the right amount, and painkillers are no exception. Only regular doses of painkillers can control pain. After the pain is controlled, the patient cannot stop the drug without permission. Consult a doctor and gradually reduce the dosage or stop the drug according to the doctor’s recommendation. Some patients only take medicine when they have pain symptoms, which not only can’t control the pain, but may also cause withdrawal syndrome, which in turn aggravates the pain symptoms. Unauthorized adjustment of the dosage of medication not only fails to effectively control pain, but also aggravates adverse reactions.
3. Take painkillers at random for unknown causes. Some patients will take painkillers at will when they are suffering from physical pain. When the drugs do not have analgesic effects, they will rush to the hospital for medical treatment. This often misses the best time to treat the disease, such as patients suffering from herpes zoster or trigeminal neuralgia, if they do not take targeted anti-inflammatory drugs, it will cause serious damage to their bodies.
4. Blindly take analgesic drugs when abdominal pain. There are many important organs in the abdominal cavity. When the abdomen is painful, it is often impossible to determine which organ caused it. Although analgesics can temporarily relieve pain symptoms, they can also mask the causes of pain, which is not conducive to doctors’ diagnosis.
5. Refusing to take painkillers in case of pain, worrying about adverse reactions. Patients do not have to worry too much about the side effects of drugs. Before using the medicine, the doctor will explain the efficacy of the medicine to the patient in detail and inform the preventive measures. The adverse effects of medication will gradually disappear with the prolongation of medication. If the patient is worried about adverse drug reactions that may affect the body, he can go to the hospital for observation of signs and strengthen communication with the doctor to know how to prevent adverse reactions.
6. Female patients cannot take painkillers during dysmenorrhea. Some female patients worry that after taking painkillers, they will increase their menstrual flow, or rely on drugs to damage their bodies. In fact, women can take ibuprofen to relieve pain during dysmenorrhea. Ibuprofen inhibits prostaglandin secretion to achieve analgesic effect. It is suitable for patients with mild or moderate pain, such as migraine, dysmenorrhea, headache or toothache. Patients may experience dyspepsia after medication, but the symptoms are milder. Every time you take it according to the doctor’s advice, there will be no drug dependence. If the pain medication fails to relieve the pain, it may be that the medication time is wrong. Patients should start taking painkillers 2 days before the onset of menstruation and take them after meals to avoid damage to the digestive system. It should be noted that ibuprofen inhibits the synthesis of prostaglandins and may damage the kidneys.
Harm of painkillers
1. Injury to the liver. Analgesics such as indomethacin, aspirin, and baotaisong can damage the liver. Patients may experience symptoms such as discomfort in the liver area or large liver, and elevated transaminase.
2. Induce gastric ulcer. Drugs such as indomethacin, salicylic acid, or aspirin can irritate the gastric mucosa. Patients will experience gastrointestinal reactions and induce gastric ulcer disease, and in severe cases, gastric perforation and gastric bleeding.
3. Reduce white blood cells. Analgesics such as indomethacin, analgin, and baotaisong can suppress bone marrow, thereby reducing the content of white blood cells, and in severe cases can also cause agranulocytosis.
4. Damage to the kidneys. Some analgesics can inhibit the body’s synthesis of prostaglandins, leading to patients with renal insufficiency, chronic interstitial nephritis, or necrosis of the renal papillae. Indomethacin drugs are more common.
5. Allergic reactions. Some patients may experience allergic reactions after taking analgesics such as paracetam, analgin, etc., exacerbating asthma symptoms, drug fever or rash.
6. Bleeding tendency. Analgesics such as aspirin and salicylic acid can inhibit the synthesis of prothrombin in the liver, thereby reducing the content of prothrombin in the blood, endangering the physiological function of platelets, prolonging the clotting time, leading to impaired clotting function and increasing the risk of bleeding.
7. Cover up symptoms. Blindly taking painkillers will mask the nature and location of the pain, which is not conducive to doctors to judge the specific cause of the pain and increases the difficulty of observing the condition. In addition, the patient may be in the stage of worsening of the disease while taking analgesics, such as appendix perforation, massive bleeding caused by ectopic pregnancy, and secondary necrosis of appendicitis. Temporary analgesia can cause patients to miss the best time for treatment, which in turn aggravates the condition, causing irreparable consequences.
Patients should be cautious when using analgesics, and should not be abused to avoid missing the best time for treatment. But don’t worry too much about the side effects of painkillers. People should correct their misunderstandings and use painkillers correctly.
