Quick relief, but is it really worth the price? (Nurofen)

Member Name: hewhoisme

Product:	Nurofen
Date:	30/05/09 (111 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: It's very fast acting

Disadvantages: Doesn't work on fevers and cheaper equally effective brands are available

It's a sad fact of life that we feel pain, becuase if we didn't we'd all be sticking our hands in fires and beating ourselves with wooden mallets. Well, I would anyway. As useful as pain is it does have one downside: we can't switch it off, which is why drugs like Nurofen exist.

Nurofen is a brand name for Ibuprofen, a reasonably powerful pain killer that can relieve tooth aches, back aches, period pains, headaches, neuralgia, rheumatic and muscular pains, as well as the symptoms of cold and flu. It can usually be bought in packs of 12 and 24, and comes in a small sugar-coated tablet, the recommended dose being two tablets every four hours. Nurofen is not recommended for children under 12, pregnant women, those who have an allergy to non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) or aspirin, or are already on NSAIDs over 75mg, or have a stomach ulcer or peforation of the gastrointestinal tract. Although Nurofen should be taken with water, I also find it helps to have a small snack, such as a biscuit, since the drug is quite acidic and can give you slight indigestion on an empty stomach.

Although Nurofen is quite an effective pain killer, it isn't really worth the hefty price tag. Non branded Ibuprofen is nearly half to two thirds the price and is just as effective, whereas Nurofen is exactly identical just with flashier packaging. The other downside is that Nurofen, whilst excellent at relieving muscular pains or hangovers, is useless at handling a temperature. Once I made the mistake of popping Nurofen to try and lower a particularly nasty fever, and all it did was make me feel exponentially worse. It took several hours of vomiting and shivering like the energiser bunny before I managed to stagger into the nurse's office, who told me that paracetamol is a fever's ultimate achilies heel, whereas Nurofen is about as useful as chewing smarties.

Overall Ibuprofen is a great painkiller, and so is Nurofen, although to be honest your only paying for a brand. If you need quick relief you'd be better buying a basic non-branded packet of Ibuprofen, which would work just as well.

Summary: Just another expensive logo