Abstract: 30 billion over the counter pain medications are sold annually. Included in this figure is a type of medication known as NSAIDs or nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. While useful and necessary in a modern-day existence these medications can have serious complications when not used appropriately. Using information gathered from a six-month long survey internship sponsored by www.rateadrug.com we will see what is being done to track the use and abuse of these so-called safe medications.

Full Article: We all think that our over-the-counter pain medications are safe and relatively harmless. If that is your thought then you are not alone. According to a recent study, 'about 40% of Americans believe that OTC drugs are too weak to cause any real harm.'i Perhaps you consider yourself to be one of those individuals who do their best not to take any medications, but everyone uses over-the-counter pain medications at one point or another, even if it is rarely enough that those times can be counted on one hand. In fact, during my six-month-long internship sponsored by www.rateadrug.com, I was surprised to find the amount of people who took over-the-counter pain medications regularly and didn't even realize it until it was brought to their attention. As part of this internship I personally collected 233 surveys. Over-the-counter pain medications accounted for roughly 40% of the total surveys completed, and of that 40% some 12.6% admitted to taking a higher dose of Ibuprofen than was recommended. If you fall into any of these categories - from the casual user to the chronic - then this article is for you.

Over-the-counter painkillers are separated into two classes based upon the way they act in the human body, the first being NSAIDs or non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, i.e. Ibuprofen; and the other being Acetaminophen, i.e. Tylenol. This article will focus mainly on an overview of the complications from taking over-the-counter NSAIDs against recommendations.

Taking some form of NSAID is not a bad thing, it can be extremely useful and it can relieve a lot of problems. NSAIDs have proven successful at treating and preventing things like multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease.ii For these reasons and others many physicians will recommend over-the-counter NSAIDs in addition to other therapies. However, long term use can potentially cause a lot of problems. According to information from the FDA's website (www.fda.gov):

'The Food and Drug Administration advises consumers to follow directions when using common pain and fever reducers. The active ingredients, acetaminophen and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), are safe and effective when the labeling directions or the advice from a healthcare professional is followed. Using more than recommended can cause serious injury.'

It is an easy thing to do, ignore the direction and take the amount of painkiller that you feel will fix the issue; and misusing NSAIDs – or other OTC medications for that matter – is not always intentional. However, its consequences can be fatal. NSAIDs work by inhibiting the body's natural inclination to produce prostaglandins, a family of hormone-like proteins that are often produced as a response to injury.iv Prostaglandins then irritate nerve endings; they also help regulate your body temperature.v Therefore, after Prostaglandins are produced you may experience pain, inflammation and fever.

The first place NSAIDs are absorbed is in the liver; at first pass the medication does no damage to the liver itself, but repeated usage can cause cirrhosis – scar tissue – and other complications in various organsvi. In the words of one survey participant, 'I knew that Ibuprofen would cause damage to my liver, but I did not know it could give me ulcers.'vii This lack of awareness seems to be the case for most people who have taken or are taking over-the-counter painkillers regularly. To date, no study has taken a direct comprehensive look at the amount of deaths caused by overuse of over-the-counter NSAIDs; all existing studies are based upon additional factors. It is not hard to assume, though, that those numbers would prove staggering if you consider that thirty billion over-the-counter NSAIDs are sold annually.

Among the 12.6% of those who admitted in their www.rateadrug.com surveys to actively taking more Ibuprofen than the recommended dose, approximately twelve people out of the ninety-five who filled out surveys for over-the-counter pain meds, two or more of the participants agreed that their health had been negatively affected in nine different areas. Just think about that for a minute; out of twelve people who are regularly using Ibuprofen outside of the guidelines, there were nine areas in which they at least two of them agreed that the medicine had negatively affected their well-being. It is hard to think of a better support for following the directions. The areas in which these events were reported includes: mental clarity, quality of sleep, patience and sensitivity to pain. Others reported negative effects to sexual health and stress level.

It is not the intent of this article to create fear or to force you, as the reader, into feeling as though bread and water are the only two things that have no complications instead it is aimed at creating a higher level of awareness in terms of what is taken, when it's taken and how it's taken. This is especially true of over-the-counter medications. It is, however, best to use such things with wisdom and order. Even though no specific studies outside of the internship results sited in this article exist to prove the point in detail, it is best to keep usage of over-the-counter medications to a minimum and, most importantly, follow the dosage directions. While much is known to be safe about their use, long term effects can be disastrous.