Speaking to AAP ahead of the annual ANZCA scientific meeting in Adelaide, faculty board member Professor Stephan Schug said a low amount of codeine, a weak opiate, is commonly added to paracetamol or ibuprofen.
But many addicts took numerous tablets a day, well over the recommended dose, resulting in liver, renal and kidney failures, gastrointestinal harm, internal bleeding and even death.
"My last patient told me that after work he goes to four pharmacies and gets 20 lots of tablets," said Prof Schug who is director of pain medicine at Royal Perth Hospital.
"Not having them listed as prescription-only is more or less failing to protect the Australian community from these harmful side-effects, particularly as their analgesic benefit is very limited.
"We work in intensive care and see the catastrophic consequences of these drugs."
Prof Schug said people would still be able to buy effective over-the-counter painkillers which do not contain codeine.
Paracetamol or ibuprofen by themselves wouldn't be affected by the ban.
And he said research had shown that a new product, a combination of the two, was better than the codeine-combination and did not have the risks of addiction.
- AAP
