The use of common painkillers has been linked to an increased risk of fatal car crashes. Canadian research has shown that motorists killed in accidents were more likely to have been driving dangerously after taking codeine, a morphine-like medicine used in well-known brands such as Solpadeine and Nurofen Plus.

The study suggests the painkiller can make drivers sleepy, slower to react to danger and more likely to make mistakes. On its own, codeine is available only on prescription. It is also used in low doses with paracetamol in products such as Solpadeine, or with ibuprofen in Nurofen Plus. These can be bought over the counter at pharmacies.

Hundreds of thousands of packets of painkillers containing codeine are sold every year in Ireland. The drug is a mild opiate, which puts it in the same class as morphine and methadone, the heroin substitute given to drug addicts.

Scientists at Lakehead University and Northern Ontario School of Medicine in Canada analysed the details of thousands of US road deaths since 1975. More than 2,100 drivers killed were found to have taken an opiate painkiller such as codeine, morphine or methadone.

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