An Australian doctor has shown a strong link between dual-action pain killers and serious liver failure. A patient of Australian addiction specialist Dr Mathew Frei died and more than half of 25 addicted people he studied had serious problems like ulcers and bleeding of the gut after taking too many of the pills.
But the pills are a hard habit to break. Codeine is a pain killer only your doctor can prescribe. "Codeine is a product of the opium poppy, as is morphine and heroin," says Tim Harding of Care New Zealand.And they are extremely addictive. But there's another way of getting that addictive codeine hit, through over the counter dual-action painkillers like Nurofen Plus, Panafen Plus and Panedeine Plus. Plus refer to the small amount of codeine in each pill.
Just how many people are abusing these drugs is unclear but Medsafe is so worried it's planning to review the rules on how they are sold.