I have maintained forever that Tylenol has almost zero benefit for me. My wife swears by the stuff and thinks that’s just been in my head. My surgeon prescribed a regimen of extra strength Tylenol to help deal with the painful aftermath, and basically I suffered for about a month from inadequate pain treatment, since I couldn’t tolerate the narcotic meds. 1200mg every six hours for the past five weeks, and I may have been taking sugar pills for all the good it’s done.
So this morning I looked on line to see what the 411 is on this and whaddya know: as many as 40% of people report zero benefit from this stuff, so it appears I’m in good company.
Even though I told the doc that Tylenol was ineffective for me, he (and his assistant) insisted on my doing a strict regimen of the stuff. When I finally ran out of the DVT med (sort of like taking low-dose aspirin for clots), I immediately self-medicated by getting off the Tylenol and switching to Aleve, a proven and effective anti-inflammatory. Now I can actually get some decent sleep.
My question is this: Why would the doctors, despite my protestation as to the ineffectiveness of Tylenol, insist that I keep taking it? I’ve puzzled over this for the last painful month and can’t come up with a reason other than possible drug interaction? Any ideas? Should this be in Factual Q?
Other stories welcome, of course, but a real reason for why a doctor would ignore a patient’s input would be most helpful before I unload on the surgeon at next week’s meeting.
I was just answering a text from my son-in-law (an MD) and I asked him about this. He’s not super impressed by acetaminophen but it is common to recommend it. When the patient says they aren’t helped by it, he says physicians automatically get concerned that the patient is “drug seeking”, which is something they deal with very commonly.
He says it is common for someone to say that acetaminophen does nothing, so then the physician mentions ibuprofen. They reply with a specific problem they have with that. This goes on until everything has been eliminated except for the narcotic they are seeking.
I’ve had 4 doctors over the years listen to my complaints that Tylenol doesn’t work for me and Advil does. They all prescribed a triple strength Ibuprofen. The last 2 times I mentioned Ibuprofen works when saying Tylenol doesn’t.
So crappy doctor or a combination of what kayaker described and not specifically telling the Doc that “Aleve works well for me”.
For one thing, I expect there are some people who really do need a narcotic. Our society’s current insistence that nobody should ever get narcotics, no matter what the reason, is leaving a lot of people in unnecessary pain.
For another, tylenol does nothing for me; ibuprofen does. And the OP is reporting that Aleve works for them; but the OP didn’t get any other OTC’s suggested instead, only an insistence that Tylenol must be taken. I have at least never had a doctor do that, and I might well have asked for a different doctor.
That certainly makes sense in a lot of cases, but part of my post-surgery prescribed meds was oxycodone, so it doesn’t make sense in this case. I think it may be a case of “doctor knows best” or selective listening to the patient (his assistant never shut up long enough to listen to me). I’m 76 years old and am pretty sure I know what works for me and what doesn’t by now.
Sounds like your Doc was being an ass then. It happens. I can think of at least 2 Doctors in the past I stopped seeing as they didn’t listen to the patient, me.
Tougher with surgeons though, you often only see them for a prelim, the surgery and the follow-up. They’re probably more prone to not listen to a patient than Doctors who see patients for years.
He seemed quite empathetic and competent, but yeah, surgeons as a group are swamped with work with an aging population and rely heavily on their assistants. Unfortunately, this one was a motor-mouth.
I agree. When I was discharged postoperatively I asked my doctor about pain meds and he told me to take Tylenol. I told him I was just taken off a morphine pump and OTC meds weren’t going to cut it. I told him I would buy effective pain meds on the street, and if arrested I’d explain that my doctor wouldn’t dispense effective pain control. He wrote me a script.
It’s the maximum allowed per the label. Far as I can tell, things are fine. I started tapering off the stuff at least a week ago and finally scrapped it the beginning of this week.
Some excellent answers so far and I have nothing factual to add, except to confirm that yes, doctors do seem to like acetaminophen. On a few occasions when I’ve needed something stronger, the choice is usually Tylenol-3, acetaminophen with 30 mg codeine. And I’m among those for whom it’s not very effective. Even Tylenol-3 doesn’t do much for me, which is unfortunate because it seems to be what dentists like to prescribe. Plain OTC Ibuprofen works much better for me.
My doctor once prescribed Tylenol-3 when I had a fractured rib that made it nearly impossible to sleep. It did nothing, and I returned the next day more than a little annoyed, and demanded something that actually worked. So he wrote a scrip for Demerol, which worked, and which he should have prescribed in the first place.
I had a stomach valve fixed a few weeks ago. I was surprised my post op IV was Tylenol.
I have no kidneys and my liver is probably full of holes so I guess they didn’t worry about it. I know I didn’t. Because I was pain free.
I asked the surgeon and he said they were having good results with Tylenol in IV form.
I’ve never taken much OTC Tylenol or ibuprofen but my field research (the family) say it’s mostly worthless.
The lil’wrekkers recent hip repair surgery must’ve been treated with something major afterwards. She slept for two days. And had oxycodone by mouth, for about 4 days.
(She’s now pain free, staple free and up doing her thing)
Count me in as a member of the “Tylenol does nothing at all” club.
A month back an ER doctor prescribed a substantial dose of ibuprofen over a few weeks to achieve the desired anti-inflammatory benefits. One thing I liked was that he also prescribed a proton pump inhibitor so that my stomach would not suffer from the treatment.
After my hysterectomy they prescribed hydrocodone - maybe with Tylenol? I don’t remember. I was deeply dubious as opioids (also novocaine) have a history of not really working on me. Yep. After two pills and no real reduction in pain I switched to ibupfofen. So much more pain relief.
Tylenol is not a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory (NSAID). It tends to be safe for most people at doses up to 4 grams per day with less risk of stomach upset or bleeding. So it is a first line drug for some types of pain including arthritis.
However, it is not strong enough for many people, or for some types of pain. NSAIDs tend to work better but have more side effects, should be used with caution in some people, and may be better as a short term add-on if possible.
An enormous number of other pain remedies exist, but efficacy, cost, addictive potential and side effects differ. A doctor should not be reluctant to use things stronger than Tylenol but may have valid concerns about the above.