Are you addicted to painkillers? Figures reveal 1.5million Brits could be at risk of getting hooked

It’s an all-too-common response – reaching for the tablets at the first sign of a headache.
And many of us are relying on an increasingly stronger ­prescription to battle the chronic pain of arthritis or backache.
In fact, figures suggest as many as 1.5 million people in the UK could be at risk of medication addiction.


The invention of modern pain relief has undoubtedly improved the lives of millions of people.
But overusing these drugs can have serious side effects – many of which are ignored in the mistaken belief that they are harmless.
Last year alone, a record 1,385 drug poisoning deaths were linked to prescription or over the counter drugs such tramadol, codeine and paracetamol , according to figures from the Office for National Statistics.

Man taking medicine (Photo: Getty)

“We live in such a medicalised culture it is not surprising that we often reach for the pills rather than try to get to the bottom of what may be leading to our discomfort,” said Dr Megan Arroll, psychologist and author of Invisible Illness: Coping with Misunderstood Conditions.
“No one wants to be in pain, so taking painkillers is usually the easiest and fastest avenue to relief,” she added.
But the quick medication route is not without risk.
Experts warn that many of the drugs that help ease our aches and pains can be dangerously addictive – and killers, too.

Dangers over the counter

When it comes to over the counter (OTC) painkiller ­addiction, it’s the pills containing codeine – a powerful opiate drug that belongs to the same family as heroin – that cause experts most concern.
While it’s a very effective pain reliever, like other opiates, codeine creates a feeling of calm and well-being and can be highly addictive.

Pain relief helps millions - but can be dangerously addictive (Photo: Getty)

Codeine is only available without prescription in the UK when mixed in medicines with other active ingredients, such as paracetamol or ibuprofen. And patients and doctors perceive these “compound painkillers” as being pretty safe, but that’s not always the case.
New stricter regulations came into force in 2009 that mean you can now only buy low-dose codeine blends, such as ­Solpadeine (8mg codeine/500mg ­paracetamol) or Nurofen Plus (12.8mg of codeine/200mg of ibuprofen) and you can only purchase 32 pills at a time.
The packet leaflet also clearly warns not to take the drug for more than three days because of its addictive nature.
But despite lower levels of codeine and tighter buying regulations, there is clear evidence that people can still become addicted and, for example, obtain more pills by visiting several different shops.


One such case was 36-year-old Nikola Bradford, who became so addicted to Nurofen Plus after taking it to treat her back pain that she begged local ­chemists not to sell them to her. The police worker, from Bolton, Lancs, later died from a ­separate drug overdose in 2014.

Prescription peril

Even more addictive than OTC painkillers are the stronger formulations that doctors prescribe for moderate to severe pain – in particular co-codomol, containing 30mg codeine and 500mg paracetamol and ­tramadol, another opiate-based medicine.
Indeed, addiction to prescription pills is now so common that more Brits die from taking painkillers and tranquillisers than heroin and cocaine .