– when we take painkillers, is the pain still there and we just don’t feel it anymore? Or does it actually ‘kill the pain’ completely?

Question

Asking this as I have a horrible throat infection making it incredibly painful to swallow, and therefore difficult to eat and drink. I have to stay on top of my painkillers every four hours or the pain starts to come back, I’d just love to know how this actually works.

In: 868

Answer 1

It depends, most OTC stuff actually does block some pain receptors, whereas opioids essentially modify the signals, altering your perception of pain.

[Here](https://youtu.be/GmHGUTNoL-I)’s a good video that goes through this question in a bit more detail without becoming a snoozefest.