Common medicines may come in many brands
Panadol, Disprin and Nurofen are three common brands of painkillers available at pharmacies and supermarkets. However, many people don't realise that their active ingredients — paracetamol, aspirin and ibuprofen respectively — are sold under many other brand names. Knowing this is important if you are allergic to one of these ingredients, or if you should not take the ingredient. It can also prevent you taking a double dose by mistake.
Common medicines may come in many brands Some paracetamol brands Panadol Dymadon Dymadon P* Lemsip Panamax* Tylenol Chemists' Own Paracetamol Some aspirin brands Disprin Aspro Clear Solprin* Some ibuprofen brands Nurofen Advil Brufen* Herron Blue Ibuprofen Rafen* Triprofen * Medicine is available on prescription under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. Common brands that contain paracetamol and other ingredients Chemists Own Pain Tablets Codral Day and Night Codalgin Demazin Cold and Flu Di-gesic Dimetapp Day and Night Cold, Cough and Flu Liquid Caps Dymadon Co Mersyndol Panadeine Panadeine Forte Panalgesic Sudafed PE Sinus Allergy and Pain Tablets Top ^
Don't double the dose
As well as medicines that contain only paracetamol, there are more than 50 medicines that contain paracetamol in combination with other active
ingredients. This means that it is quite easy to accidentally take a double dose of paracetamol if you take two medicines containing paracetamol for different purposes. Be especially careful with cough, cold and flu medicines, as many of these contain paracetamol.
Similar brand names may have different ingredients
Just because two medicines have similar brand names and packaging, this does not mean that they contain the same ingredients. Often, they do not.
Similar brand names may have different ingredients Some Codral brands Codral Cold and Flu tablets Paracetamol, codeine, phenylephrine Codral Forte tablets Codral Pain Relief tablets Some Lemsip brands Lemsip Max Cold & Flu sachets Lemsip Flu 12 hour capsules Paracetamol, phenylephrine Ibuprofen, pseudoephedrine Aspirin, Codeine Paracetamol, codeine Active ingredient Some Visine brands Visine Advanced Relief eye drops Visine Allergy eye drops Tetrahydrozoline Naphazoline, pheniramine
