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Nurofen products in Australia are "misleading"


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I always buy the unbranded product if possible when it comes to over the counter medicine. Ibuprofen is the same no matter what colour the box is. The only difference might be whether it's enteric coated or not (in fact with Ibuprofen it should always be).

 

---------- Post added 14-12-2015 at 15:18 ----------

 

 

In reality if you buy all four products you'll find that they are actually identical (I suspect).

Whilst what you say is true, a liquid delivery might be absorbed faster, that's not what was being sold here. They claimed that each product somehow targeted the specific type of pain, a claim that is simply untrue.

 

Also, ibuprofen aggravates the stomach, so don't all oral delivery mechanisms need to be enteric coated?

 

There are oral formulations of ibuprofen (ibuprofen arginine) which are actually similar to ibuprofen lysine in as much as they are both modified to increase water solubility. I can believe that there are differences in the rate of absorption of the different neurofen preparations. The issue is whether that is better for specific types of pain.

 

Interestingly, after a quick look on pubmed, I found a paper saying that different enantiomers of ibuprofen have different rates of absorption. From my limited knowledge, I think that the ratio of D:L isomers will depend o the manufacturing process. So possibly generic drugs will be slightly different from the branded ones.

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Ibuprofen lysine is a salt of ibuprofen and is absorbed faster than the regular ibuprofen, apparently (I asked a pharmacist).

I find it works quite well for my tension headaches - I had to resort to something when Syndol was taken of the market for a while - but I buy the "shop's own" wherever I happen to be.

 

I did notice that the "Nurofen migraine" and Nurofen tension headache" were both 342mg of ibuprofen lysine, so what is the difference!

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Ibuprofen lysine is a salt of ibuprofen and is absorbed faster than the regular ibuprofen, apparently (I asked a pharmacist).

I find it works quite well for my tension headaches - I had to resort to something when Syndol was taken of the market for a while - but I buy the "shop's own" wherever I happen to be.

 

I did notice that the "Nurofen migraine" and Nurofen tension headache" were both 342mg of ibuprofen lysine, so what is the difference!

 

The summary of product characteristics says these are identical products. https://www.medicines.org.uk/emc/medicine/23359

 

---------- Post added 14-12-2015 at 21:53 ----------

 

It's worth noting however that nurofen back pain and nurofen period pain are separate formulations with different excipients. Particularly back pain is a higher dose (300mg) and period pain is more quickly absorbed (30 min vs 1-2 hrs).

https://www.medicines.org.uk/emc/medicine/23379

https://www.medicines.org.uk/emc/medicine/25476

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If people are gullible enough to buy branded products you can't complain about companies producing whole ranges of branded rubbish.

 

Thanks to the placebo effect, the more expensive that people think that the drugs are, the more effective that they become. So if you are ignorant of contents, painkillers that come in flashy expensive looking boxes, thats advertised in pharmacological gobbledygook to try that justifies the extra expense, then they will for some be more effective.

 

This shouldn't be a surprise, as there is a strong psychological element to pain, so if you are psychologically soothed then any pain relief that you take will work that little better.

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Thanks to the placebo effect, the more expensive that people think that the drugs are, the more effective that they become. So if you are ignorant of contents, painkillers that come in flashy expensive looking boxes, thats advertised in pharmacological gobbledygook to try that justifies the extra expense, then they will for some be more effective.

 

This shouldn't be a surprise, as there is a strong psychological element to pain, so if you are psychologically soothed then any pain relief that you take will work that little better.

 

It could all be cured by homeopathy ;)

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