How much co codamol can i take

It can also slow down digestion, which is why codeine can cause constipation. Co-codamol takes up to 1 hour to work. It keeps on working for about 5 hours. If your pain has not gone away, talk to your pharmacist or doctor. Depending on why you're taking it, you may need to take it for a few days or weeks at most. For example, if you're in pain after an injury or operation. You may need to take it for longer if you have a long-term condition such as back pain.

Talk to your doctor if you're not sure how long you need to take co-codamol for. It's possible to become addicted to co-codamol. For this reason, your dose will be reviewed to make sure you are only taking the amount you need to control your pain. Your treatment plan may include details of how and when you will stop taking co-codamol. If you need to take it for a long time your body can become tolerant to it.

That means you need higher doses to control your pain over time. Some people can become more sensitive to pain hyperalgesia. If this happens, your doctor will reduce your dose gradually to help these symptoms. If you have been taking co-codamol for a long time, you can prevent withdrawal symptoms by reducing your dose gradually.

Speak to your doctor if you are worried about tolerance, hyperalgesia or becoming addicted. If you're addicted to co-codamol, you may find it difficult to stop taking it or feel you need to take it more often than necessary.

And if you stop taking co-codamol suddenly you may suffer from withdrawal symptoms. Talk to your doctor if you're worried about addiction. They can also help you stop taking it safely and reduce withdrawal symptoms. You're not recommended to take co-codamol for longer than 3 days if you buy it from a pharmacy. You're able to take co-codamol for longer if your doctor prescribes it for you.

If you take co-codamol for a long time your body can become tolerant to it. That means you need higher doses to control your pain. For this reason your doctor will usually review your treatment regularly. If you've been taking co-codamol for a long time and need to stop taking it, you can prevent withdrawal symptoms by reducing your dose gradually.

Your doctor can help you do this. Yes, there are other painkillers you can try. Some painkillers work better than others for certain types of pain.

For example, the best painkiller to ease your headache may not be the best one for your backache. Before taking co-codamol, try taking paracetamol to see if that helps your pain.

Paracetamol can relieve most types of pain. Painkillers known as non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs NSAIDs , such as ibuprofen and naproxen , can reduce inflammation as well as pain. These are good for joint, back and muscular pain. This includes people with stomach ulcers or severe heart, kidney or liver problems. It's best to stop drinking alcohol during the first few days of treatment until you see how co-codamol affects you.

Drinking alcohol while you're taking co-codamol can make you feel more sleepy. It can also increase the risk of serious side effects. If you feel sleepy with co-codamol, stop drinking alcohol while you're taking it. Do not drive a car or ride a bike or use tools or machinery if co-codamol makes you sleepy, gives you blurred vision or makes you feel dizzy, clumsy or unable to concentrate or make decisions. This may be more likely when you first start taking co-codamol but could happen at any time — for example when starting another medicine.

It's an offence to drive a car if your ability to drive safely is affected. It's your responsibility to decide if it's safe to drive. If you're in any doubt, do not drive. Even if your ability to drive is not affected, the police have the right to request a saliva sample to check how much co-codamol is in your body. UK has more information on the law on drugs and driving.

Talk to your doctor or pharmacist if you're unsure whether it's safe for you to drive while taking co-codamol. Apart from avoiding alcohol, you can eat and drink normally while taking co-codamol. Co-codamol does not affect any type of contraception, including the combined pill or emergency contraception.

However, if co-codamol makes you vomit for more than 24 hours, your contraceptive pills may not protect you from pregnancy. Look on the pill packet to find out what to do. Read more about what to do if you're on the pill and you're being sick or have diarrhoea. If you're taking co-codamol for a maximum of 3 days and at normal doses, there's no clear evidence that it can reduce fertility in either men or women.

However, if you take high doses of co-codamol for a long time, there's a very small risk it can temporarily reduce fertility in men and women.

It can cause a health problem called hypogonadism. Hypogonadism is where the body does not make enough sex hormones. This can make it more difficult for you to conceive. If you're worried about taking co-codamol for longer than 3 days, and how this may affect your fertility, talk to your doctor. If you take recreational drugs, such as cannabis, cocaine and heroin, while you're taking co-codamol, you're more likely to get the serious side effects of the codeine in co-codamol.

These include breathing difficulties, heart problems, fits and even going into a coma. Some recreational drugs, such as cannabis, also increase common codeine side effects such as sleepiness and dizziness. Taking heroin while you're on prescribed co-codamol is particularly dangerous. The patient overdosed to help him sleep as 'a few tablets weren't good enough'. As they are easily accessible medications he felt there was no danger in taking more than stated on the box.

The effects of an overdose often don't present for several days making patients unaware of the potential harm they have caused. This lack of symptoms was also a deterrent from attending the local hospital when advised. Teaching on basic pain history includes asking patients if they have taken painkillers and how many. Yet do we all do this? Perhaps this relates to the time pressures of NHS dentistry - the practice I work in has 15 minute appointments for an 'Emergency Pain' which appears to be the norm in the area.

Is this really enough time to take a full and detailed history as well as examining the patient, performing any investigations and then treatment? Despite time pressures, this patient reinforced in me the importance of ensuring patients are asked regarding doses of painkillers taken; and when advising painkillers, ensure patients are made aware of the dosage and if needs be the consequences of an overdose. In order to act holistically, these two quick and easy points should be followed as a matter of routine.

After all, taking it to an extreme, the seconds needed to address these simple points have the potential to save someone's life. Dental pain management - a cause of significant morbidity due to paracetamol overdose. Br Dent J ; Download references. You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar.

If you have any questions or concerns about taking opioids safely please speak with your doctor or a pharmacist. If you have bought co-codamol from a pharmacy you should not take it for more than three days in a row.

If you are still in pain after this time ask your doctor or a pharmacist for advice. Co-codamol contains both paracetamol and codeine. Do not take any other preparation which contains paracetamol while you are taking co-codamol.

Co-codamol is likely to affect your reactions and your ability to drive. Do not drive until you know how it affects you. Co-codamol contains two painkilling ingredients: paracetamol and codeine.

It is given to relieve short-lasting painful conditions where paracetamol alone is not sufficient. There are three different strengths of co-codamol available, one of which can be bought without a prescription at a pharmacy. The amount of paracetamol in the three different strengths is the same mg , but the amount of codeine differs and this determines the strength of the preparation.

Combination painkillers like co-codamol can be useful to reduce the total number of tablets that need to be taken in a day, but they may not always offer the best pain control. This is because it is difficult to adjust the dose to suit the level of your pain without increasing the risk of side-effects.

Consequently, many doctors prefer not to prescribe combination painkillers. Some medicines are not suitable for people with certain conditions, and sometimes a medicine may only be used if extra care is taken. For these reasons, before you start taking co-codamol, it is important that your doctor or pharmacist knows:.