More than 4 million Americans arrive each year at emergency departments in the United States after car crashes. One of the most common situations reported by these individuals is persistent pain. A new study, however, shared in the journal Pain, compared the two most common pain relief medications opioids like Oxycodone and NSAIDs like Ibuprofen and discovered that the risk of reporting that continuous pain six weeks after the vehicle crash had happened was not statistically different for patients who had been prescribed either medicine at the emergency department. Vehicle accidents are not just a common cause of visits to the ER; they are also a leading cause of serious injuries in the U.S.

However, there were differences between the patients when it compared to those individuals who were initially prescribed opioids, who may have a higher risk of becoming addicted to them and would still be using them six weeks after the crash. The researchers worked with the Brown University’s School of Public Health to analyze the pain outcomes and prescribing outcomes at six weeks for nearly 1000 individuals who went through car accidents and the information was drawn from a large study of eight different hospitals in Michigan, Florida, Massachusetts and New York.

They factored in more than 50 different elements to determine the root cause of the issue. The researchers identified this six week after the accident happened. Similar patients were 7.2% likelier to report moderate or severe pain, if they were prescribed opioids when compared with NSAIDs. However, this difference was classified as being too small to be statistically significant. Unfortunately, consistent pain after a vehicle accident is all too common for someone who has been hit particularly if he or she was a bicyclist or a pedestrian.