When confronted with pain, the consumer most often turns to painkillers, whether over-the-counter or prescribed. Understandably, no one wants to spend a day in pain so taking a pill is easy even if there are many more conservative approaches. But what should be even more painful, as described in an article from The Guardian, is the way pain treatment is marketed causing the consumer to overpay when it is not necessary. Once again, the public should be reminded to read labels, not just on their cereal boxes, but on their medicines as well.

Targeted painkillers zero in on one vital organ – the wallet 

  

 
Suzanne Moore / The Guardian
 

It is no surprise that Reckitt Benckiser could mislead customers with its Nurofen Specific range. When ill or in pain, we will pay for any promise of a magic bullet 

Ever since I tried to give a headachey guy at a party a painkiller marketed for period pain, I have wondered how exactly these things work. His reluctance to take it was remarkable. What did he think was in this pill? Some marvellous chemical that only those who menstruate respond to? Still, the packaging was pink, so, you know … anything might happen.

 

‘In Australia the federal court has just ruled that Reckitt Benckiser, which makes Nurofen, has misled consumers with its Nurofen Specific pain range.’ Photograph: Dinendra Haria/Demotix/Corbis  

Nurofen's maker misled consumers over painkillers' contents, court rules

Indeed, targeted pain relief in the form of over-the-counter medicine appears to be largely about targeted marketing yet, as the choice becomes bewildering, this marketing has been very effective. In Australia the federal court has just ruled that the multinational drug company Reckitt Benckiser, which makes Nurofen, has misled consumers with its Nurofen Specific pain range. It sells Nurofen Back Pain, Nurofen Period Pain, Nurofen Migraine Pain and Nurofen Tension Headache for almost twice the amount it charges for plain old Nurofen, but all these medications actually have the same active ingredient, 342 milligrams of ibuprofen lysine.

Nurofen is already more expensive than generic ibuprofen, but we down great quantities of it. Painkillers are increasingly sold as “fast-acting” as well as able to mysteriously travel to the one part of the body that hurts, able to somehow discriminate between different kinds of headaches, to “know” the difference between lower back pain and a fever.

The drugs work, to an extent, but the claims made for them depend on us not being able to read the labels

Such customised pain relief depends on magical thinking, in which we hand over money for the idea that all everyday aches and pains can be treated with these magic little bullets. The drugs work, to an extent, but the claims made for them depend on us not being able to read the labels or understand them. We are bound to be more susceptible when we are ill or in pain. Ibuprofen is remarkably useful, there is no need to make any snake oil claims for it, but this has not stopped companies doing it.

The company’s spokeswoman told the Sydney Morning Herald that this specific-pain range was “to help consumers navigate their pain relief options, particularly within the grocery environment where there is no healthcare professional to assist decision making”. Such bunkum should give us a headache, all right.

When we choose to medicate ourselves with over-the-counter remedies, we are also buying comfort. These pills will not only stop our pain, but also feel it and understand it. All those ads which show parts of the body lit up reinforce this idea. If we go to a doctor and leave without a prescription, we may feel short-changed. The desire to take something, anything, fuels the scam of the multivitamin market too.

How easy it is to mislead us as consumers. We all want to feel better, not to know better. That’s why we swallow wishful thinking down with our “fast-acting” pills, gel caps, capsules, soluble tablets. Where does it hurt? Everywhere. What part of the body is really targeted? That vital organ : the wallet.