Advil PM is an over-the-counter drug manufactured and marketed by Wyeth Consumer Healthcare in Richmond, Virginia. Advil PM is part of Wyeth's line of pain relievers for adults, which includes regular Advil, Advil Migraine, Advil Cold & Sinus, and Advil Allergy. The main ingredient in all of these is ibuprofen, but each has additional active ingredients to help with various symptoms. Advil PM comes in caplets and liquid gel caps, and in addition to ibuprofen, contains a sleep-inducing active ingredient and 10 non-active ingredients.
Ibuprofen
Ibuprofen is a pain-reliever in the class of medications known as nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, or NSAIDs, which also include drugs like aspirin. Ibuprofen is intended to treat a variety of aches and pains, including headaches, backaches, minor arthritis pain and muscle aches. Each caplet or gel cap contains 200 milligrams of ibuprofen, and the recommended dosage is two caplets or gel caps, for a total of 400 milligrams of ibuprofen.
Diphenhydramine
Diphenhydramine is the sleep-inducing ingredient in Advil PM. The caplets contain diphenhydramine citrate and the gel caps contain diphenhydramine hydrochloride--two different forms of the same drug-- at 38 milligrams per caplet and 25 milligrams per gel cap (for a total of 76 and 50 milligrams per dosage, respectively).
Diphenhydramine is actually an antihistamine, according to drugs.com, and is the active ingredient in medications such as Benadryl that are meant to treat common allergy and cold symptoms. However, diphenhydramine has the added effect of inducing sleep, and is also used in the treatment of mild cases of Parkinson's disease (ref. 2).
Inactive Ingredients
To bind these active ingredients into caplet or gel cap form, additional, non-active ingredients are used, including the artificial food-grade colors D&C red no. 33 and FD&C blue no. 1. Other non-active ingredients include fractionated coconut oil, gelatin, pharmaceutical-grade ink, polyethylene glycol, potassium hydroxide, purified water, sorbitan and sorbitol.
