• Question: How do pain killers target the area in pain?

    Asked by Erin to Sinead, Neil, Mark, Florence, Anne on 15 Nov 2015. This question was also asked by 969drud36, ..student...
    • Photo: Florence McCarthy

      Florence McCarthy answered on 15 Nov 2015:

      In general, most pain killers work to stop the pain signals in the brain rather than locally where the pain is. There are some that affect pain at the local level but these tend to rely on the increased blood flow to that area caused by inflammation and act on this.

    • Photo: Mark Collins

      Mark Collins answered on 15 Nov 2015:

      For the majority they merely travel through our bloodstream and into our brain and block the nerve signals that are coming from the area that the pain is coming from. Other drugs like anti-inflammatories actually inhibit and work to relief the source of the pain.

    • Photo: Sinead Balgobin

      Sinead Balgobin answered on 16 Nov 2015:

      Different painkillers work in different ways. Lots of them work by stopping our brain from telling us we are in pain (by blocking “receptors” and pain signals). Some are anti-inflammatories and stop inflammation to stop the source of pain.

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