One in five Australians are taking too many painkillers, new data shows, prompting doctors to warn about the harmful - and sometimes fatal - consequences.
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New research by NPS Medicinewise shows that 19 per cent of Australians have exceeded the recommended daily dose of some widely used medicines.
It found 17 per cent of people consuming paracetamol-codeine tablets and 9 per cent of those taking ibuprofen-codeine tablets have exceeded the recommended maximum dosage of six tablets a day.
"If it's not under doctor supervision, taking higher doses of something like ibuprofen or aspirin, you're at a higher risk of gastric bleeds, stomach ulcers and bad indigestion," said the non-profit's CEO Lynne Weekes.
"Paracetamol is actually really toxic once you get to certain doses, affecting people's livers in ways that are not easily reversible, and people can die."
Ibuprofen-codeine tablets, such as Nurofen Plus, are of particular concern because codeine may lead to dependency and increase the intake of ibuprofen, which in high amounts can damage the kidneys, stomach and liver.
The survey of a thousand Australians found millennials are twice as likely as Baby Boomers to have overused ibuprofen-codeine painkillers.
"Millennials are probably using it to manage symptoms that are inconvenient and from acute conditions," said Ms Weekes.
"They're under a lot of pressure in their workplace and they don't want to take time off work, but they should not be exceeding the recommended dosage."
Millennials were found to be much more likely than Baby Boomers to mix alcohol and prescription painkillers and to swap prescription medication.
Dr Suzanne Nielsen, from the National Drug and Alcohol Centre, said that earlier research showed about 5 per cent of Australians had misused medicine in the past year.
It showed three in four recent users of painkillers containing opiates reported misusing over-the-counter codeine products such as Nurofen Plus and four in 10 reported misusing prescription codeine products such as Panadeine Forte.
"If you look at our overdose statistics of pharmaceutical opioids, we see there are increasing numbers and some of the big contributors to that are combining opioids with other sedatives like alcohol, benzodiazepine and sleeping pills," she said.
"So we know that can be a dangerous combination and it is something that we caution against."
Ric Day, Professor of Pharmacology at St Vincent's Hospital, encouraged anyone who recognised they were taking too much medicine to speak with their doctor or pharmacist and visit the NPS Medicinewise website.
He said the fact so many Australians were taking more painkillers than recommended indicated that their conditions were not being properly managed.
"If you look at people with spinal pain, we know that medicines are only a part of the solution, and we know that things like keeping moving rather than lying down and losing weight can help," he said.
"Sometimes with back pain, the chance of completely eliminating it is unlikely, but the point is, you can live a useful and happy and productive life, while putting medicine in its right place."
The NPS Medicinewise survey revealed 30 per cent of Australians drank alcohol soon after taking prescription pain relief medication, with one of the key reasons being they wanted to enjoy themselves on a night out and avoid a headache.
"It looked as though people sometimes took pain relief to prevent a headache and that's certainly not going to work very well because these medicines are only going to work for six to eight hours so probably by the time you actually get the headache you'll need another dose," said Ms Weekes.
"There were also those who already had a headache and took it as a precautionary measure, and we recommend they give themselves a bit of a gap, a couple of hours, especially with ibuprofen because it can upset the stomach."
