When looking at Advil I have noticed that there are multiple variations targeting specific pain points. For example; *Advil Arthritis Pain, Advil Muscle & Joint or, Advil Paediatric Drops, Advil Paediatric Drops Fever from Colds or Flu*.
Doesn’t Advil spread evenly throughout the body and **only** work on areas associated with inflammation?
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There is no significant difference. In fact the makers of a similar drug in Australia got in trouble over these claims. Some of those variants have slight differences, for instance one has caffiene, capsules vs tablets, but you are correct the active ingredient is the same in all of them.
The difference is mostly marketing and sometimes dosage.
Medicine marketing (especially the stuff you don’t need to ask a pharmacist for) is about solving a problem for the customer. So there’s an advantage to telling the customer “This problem you have, we can fix it”. The problem comes in if you charge differently for the exact same formulation in different packaging.
But sometimes they vary the dosage. So myprodol comes in a “period pain” formula, that is more concentrated than their regular formula. And pediatric formulations will have lower dosage and different additives.
Often times there is little to no difference in the medications. Excedrin and Excedrin Migraine have the same active ingredients but Excedrin Migraine contains a pamphlet about migraines. Advil Arthritis has a bottle that is supposed to be easier to open for people with arthritis.
Advil Cold and Flu has additional active ingredients besides Advil. Always pay attention to active ingredients so you don’t take too much of the same type of medication. Edit: I misread and that one you mentioned may only be ibuprofen, But Advil Cold and Flu does have other ingredients.
Pediatric versions of medicine may be liquid or chewable to make it easier for children to take and be of lesser strength.
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