eli5: If all pain medication does the same thing (trick the body into thinking everything is okay and it’s not in pain), then why does some pain require stronger medication like opioids?

Question

eli5: If all pain medication does the same thing (trick the body into thinking everything is okay and it’s not in pain), then why does some pain require stronger medication like opioids?

In: Other

Answer 1

Sometimes non-opioid pain medication isn’t enough to make the pain go away. Also, the mechanism of action of the non-opioid pain medication might not work for some causes of pain.