There’s no easy way to treat heavy drinkers,and anyone with liver disease for pain. Both need careful supervision when using any pain medication, including over-the-counter pain medications. For older adults acetaminophen, or Tylenol is the safest pain reliever. However there are risk involved with it too. Acetaminophen has a warning against taking it while drinking more than three alcoholic drinks a day. This is because excessive alcohol consumption damages the liver.
Aspirin and ibuprofen, are not necessarily any safer. People who drink a lot also tend to have inflammation of the stomach’s lining. Alcohol irritates the digestive tract, and alcoholics then are at risk for ulcers and internal bleeding, which aspirin and ibuprofen can make much worse. A safer choice can be opiate medications such as oxycodone or morphine. However, there is an extreme risk of addiction in people who have a history of abusing alcohol. For people with a history of problem drinking, it’s best to get opiates through special pain clinics that have experience monitoring for addictions.
