One of Australia's most popular painkillers is next to useless for a wide range of conditions

Australian researchers found that paracetamol is only slightly more effective at reducing pain than dummy pills for the majority of pain. 

A report published by the Medical Journal of Australia tested the effectiveness of paracetamol tablets against placebo pills to measure the efficacy of paracetamol.

Despite being the most popular painkiller in the world, evidence in the report suggests paracetamol is more effective than placebo in only a small number of cases, the report said. 

The researchers compared the results with people who were suffering for a wide range of painful conditions when they used paracetamol and when they were giving placebo pills. 

The report wrote that paracetamol recorded strong or moderate evidence of efficacy in only four painful conditions

Australian researchers found out of 44 painful conditions that there was only four conditions that were supported strong or moderate evidence that paracetamol was superior to placebo.

The four conditions where paracetamol proved to be more effective than placebo included, knee and hip osteoarthritis, craniotomy, tension headaches and perineal pain.   

‘For most conditions, evidence regarding the effectiveness of paracetamol is insufficient for drawing firm conclusions,’ authors said. 

Despite being widely used for lower back pain the report said that the condition was not improved by the use of paracetamol. 

There was high quality evidence to support the ineffectiveness of paracetamol when relieving acute low back pain 

‘There is high quality evidence that paracetamol is not effective for relieving acute low back pain,’ authors reported. 

There was eleven conditions where only low quality evidence supported paracetamol’s effectiveness over the dummy pills.

They included: dental procedure, major surgery including, gynaecological, and orthopaedic surgery, acute migraine in adults and common cold headaches.

There was also inconclusive evidence on the efficacy of paracetamol over placebo pills in 17 different conditions including: chronic low back pain, post‐caesarean delivery pain, rheumatoid arthritis, hip fractures and cardiac surgery. 

Lead author on the study, Dr Christina Abdel Shaheed, of the University of Sydney, said the drug was considered a very safe medicine at recommended doses the Daily Telegraph reported. 

‘If it appears to be working for them, and they notice the pain is noticeably worse if it’s not used, then they can continue to use paracetamol within the recommended daily dose,’ she told the Daily Telegraph.

‘However, people should not use paracetamol for more than a few days at a time unless specifically advised to by a doctor or pharmacist,’ Dr Abdel Shaheed said. 

Those with spinal pain or osteoarthritis who received repeated does of paracetamol were found to have elevated blood liver enzymes