Pain Relief

Welcome to our Pain Relief Service

New guidelines for Online Pharmacies require us to diagnose a condition before offering prescription medicines to a patient. Here at NationWide Pharmacies our doctors have been working hard to develop an online pain relief diagnostic service. This new service will provide our patients with an accurate diagnosis of their condition. Following the diagnosis, our doctor will be able to issue a free private prescription as usual.

This new diagnostic procedure takes a little more time than our previous method of consultation but the good news is it is only required once and it will provide you with a very accurate diagnosis. 

Once your online diagnosis is complete you will be able to purchase your pain relief medicines as usual. Three months from the date of your diagnosis our doctor will send you a medical review form to monitor your progress on the treatment and renew your free private prescription if necessary

Please read the following very carefully it will help you to understand more about the type of pain and condition that you have.

Introduction

Constant pain is extremely debilitating and for sufferers can severely restrict their lifestyle. Even pain that isn’t severe when constant can have devastating effects on a person’s lifestyle and temperament. Pain killers play an important role in helping people with constant pain to get some relief and improve their life

Important

You should never move straight to strong pain killers without firstly self-medicating by exhausting the numerous over the counter pain remedies that are available in your high street, this is sometimes called following the pain relief  ladder. Paracetamol for instance has been used for over a hundred years to successfully cure mild to moderate pain. Paracetamol is commonly used for the relief of headaches and other aches and pains, it is a major ingredient in numerous cold and flu remedies. In combination with other analgesics, paracetamol can also be used in the management of more severe pain such as post-surgical pain. Ibuprofen is another excellent over the counter product. It is a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) that can be used for the relief of symptoms such as, arthritis and fever. It is an excellent analgesic (pain reliever) and works especially well where there is an inflammatory component to the pain.

Another effective over the counter remedy is a mix of 500mg paracetamol and 8mg or 12.8mg of codeine which works by mimicking your body’s natural pain reducing chemicals which are called endorphins. Endorphins are found in the brain and spinal cord. They block the transmission of pain signals sent to the brain by your nerves. This mix can be very effective at reducing severe pain.

If over the counter Paracetamol mix is not providing effective pain relief a stronger version is available. This mix of 500mg paracetamol and 15mg or 30mg of codeine is only available after an online diagnostic consultation with our Doctor. 

Types of Pain

There are two basic types of pain Nociceptive and Neuropathic. It is very important that we identify which type you have before recommending a treatment. Our online diagnostic consultation will help to identify which type of pain you have and the correct treatment for it.

Nociceptive Pain

Nociceptive pain is the most common and all of us will have experienced it at some time in our lives. This pain is caused by damage to tissue such as a physical injury like a burn or cut or maybe pressure from inside the body such as a tumour. The way we feel this type of pain is through the nerve endings in the area of the pain and this is transmitted to our brain via the nerves. Nociceptive pain is often described as sharp, or aching. Excellent relief for this type of pain is provided by traditional pain killers such as, Paracetamol, Codeine, morphine and anti-inflammatory pain killers.

Neuropathic Pain

Unlike Nociceptive pain Neuropathic pain is caused by a problem with the nerves themselves which affects the way they function resulting in pain messages being sent to the brain, for example sciatica (trapped nerve), Multiple sclerosis, HIV infection and many others It is estimated that 7 out of 100 people in the UK suffer from persistent (chronic) neuropathic pain. Neuropathic pain is often described as burning, stabbing, shooting, aching or like an electric shock. The traditional pain killers that work so well on nociceptive pain are less likely to work on neuropathic pain. The good news is that there are some relatively new pain killers that are very effective when it comes to relieving neuropathic pain which is why it is so important to identify what type of pain you have. Which is why we have developed our free online diagnostic consultation.