OTC painkillers have their place I suppose, but I need them so rarely they are not in my EDC. Besides, what painkillers do is mask pain and allow you to continue when you should probably stop. Continuing is not necessarily a good thing; minor injuries can get worse. Just my non-medical opinion.

Agree about the masking and the 'stop and evaluate' aspect. MY use of them is primarily the NSAID value. The pain relief is good if 1.I know the injury won't get worse (especially if the ability to stop RIGHT then can't happen and I MUST continue for a little) 2. I know I AM going to be stopping and it'll feel a bit better while I tend/treat it to helping it get better.

I agree completely with your points.....I was just using the meds as a reference to the container.

The anti-inflammatory effect can also alleviate the problem. Shredded the cartilage in one knee and had it cleaned up about 10 years ago. It sometimes decides to ache. Ibuprofen for a couple days will put it back to sleep for weeks or months. It will have to get a lot worse before it is even ready to go back to orthopedics again.