A 1,000mg dose worked no better than 500mg for pain after surgery
Across 51 trials, about half of people got at least half their pain relieved by one dose, against a fifth on placebo. 500mg and 1,000mg performed the same.
What the study found
Doubling the dose bought no extra pain relief after surgery
Across 51 trials, one dose of paracetamol relieved at least half the pain after surgery for about half of people, against a fifth on placebo. At 500 mg, 3.5 people had to take it for one extra person to get there. At 1,000 mg it was 3.6, and 650 mg was worst of the three at 4.6.
The caveat · Surgery pain, not everyday aches
Single doses, in adults, for pain after an operation. That is the setting this drug performs best in, and it is not the setting most people take it in. Adverse-event reporting across the pooled trials was patchy, so the reassuring safety picture is thinner than the efficacy picture. The review dates from 2008 and has not been updated since.