Oct 11, 2026

Hangover Pills, Patches and Supplements: What the Trials Found

A woman in her thirties in a yellow knitted jumper sits at a bright kitchen table in daylight, reading the back of a plain white supplement pot held in one hand, her other hand flat on a navy notebook, no label text visible.

In the UK, any product presented as doing something about a hangover or its symptoms is classed as a medicine and needs a licence, so no supplement, drink or patch may lawfully say so. The 2022 systematic review found 21 placebo-controlled trials, 386 people, no two testing the same thing, and rated every efficacy result very low quality.¹ Here is each ingredient, then patches and painkillers, beside the Wellgard guide to how to not be hungover.

What does UK law say a hangover product can claim?

Appendix 7 of MHRA Guidance Note 8 sets it out.² The regulator has regarded hangover products as medicines "for many years"; an independent panel agreed in 2001, since "hangover" plainly means headache and nausea after drinking. An unlicensed product may not claim or imply that it does anything for a hangover or any symptom of one; wording tying a product to the day after drinking counts, as do claims about the liver or alcohol's toxic effects. The test is "the message conveyed rather than the actual wording", across labels, adverts, websites, editorials and customer reviews, and products are investigated "every year, particularly in the run up to Christmas". Licensed and registered traditional herbal medicines carry approved overindulgence wording; food supplements do not.

What did the systematic review of hangover trials find?

The review searched four databases to August 2021. "No two studies reported on the same intervention", so nothing could be pooled, and "methodological concerns and imprecision resulted in all studied efficacy outcomes being rated as very low quality".¹ Seven interventions differed from placebo in one small trial each: clove extract, an oriental raisin tree extract, L-cysteine, red ginseng, Korean pear juice and two medicines. The BMJ review of 2005, eight trials, reached the same place: "the most effective way to avoid the symptoms of alcohol induced hangover is to practise abstinence or moderation".³ A "hangover score" is a questionnaire, and the trials used different ones, so percentages are not comparable.

What is in hangover pills, patches and sachets?

A 2021 audit of 82 marketed hangover products found B vitamins, vitamin C, milk thistle, dihydromyricetin (DHM) and N-acetylcysteine (NAC) the commonest ingredients.⁴ Fifty-one products (62.2%) held a vitamin above its daily recommended intake, DHM and NAC doses were unstated in 59% and 73% of products containing them, and the authors found "no peer-reviewed human data demonstrating either safety or efficacy of any of the 82 evaluated hangover products". UK listings in October 2026 sell the same ingredients as patches, capsules, drinks, sachets and "kits"; no placebo-controlled trial of an intravenous vitamin drip was found either.

What did the trials of each ingredient find?

"Very low" is the review's GRADE rating; later trials by their design. No row is a verdict on an ingredient, only what one trial measured.¹

Ingredient	Trials; people	Design and funding	What was found	Certainty
Clove bud extract	1; 16 men	Double-blind crossover; maker-run	Severity score 55.34% lower⁵	Very low (review)
Korean pear juice	1; 14 men	Single-blind crossover	Severity "alleviated to 16% and 21%" at 15 hours⁶	Very low (review)
Red ginseng	2; 25 men, then unstated	Crossovers; supplier authors in 2026	2014: acetaldehyde higher at 120 minutes, symptoms "positive"; 2026: lower scores at 6 and 15 hours^{7, 8}	Very low (review, 2014)
Oriental raisin tree extract and DHM	1; 26 men	Crossover, one slow ALDH2 copy	Faster fall in scores; no trial of DHM alone exists^{9, 10}	Very low (review)
L-cysteine	1; 19 men	Double-blind, placebo	Positive "based on correlational analysis"¹¹	Very low (review)
N-acetylcysteine (NAC)	2; 49 and 40	Double-blind, placebo	No difference in hangover scores in either^{12, 13}	Two trials agree
Live cultures	4; 54, 26, 28, 28	Double-blind crossovers; maker-affiliated authors in all four	Acetaldehyde lower in all four (in the largest, only in ALDH2 variant carriers); scores "improved" in three, "no marked improvements" in the largest^{14, 15, 16, 17}	Small; unrepeated
Prickly pear extract	1; 55 completers	Double-blind crossover	Three of nine symptoms lower; overall index not significant (P = .07); severe-hangover odds 0.38¹⁸	One trial; mixed
Artichoke extract	1; 15 (UK)	Double-blind crossover	"None of the outcome measures differed significantly"¹⁹	One small trial
Vitamins, minerals and antioxidants	1; 214	Double-blind, three arms	"Did not lead to a statistically significant improvement in hangover symptoms"²⁰	Largest trial found
Glutathione yeast extract	1; 40	Double-blind crossover; maker authors	Acetaldehyde lower; "no significant difference" on either questionnaire²¹	One trial
Multi-ingredient formulas, 2021 to 2026	6; 9 to 80	Randomised, placebo; two with maker employees as authors	Four reported lower symptom scores, two not significant; none repeated^{22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27}	Unrepeated
Milk thistle	0	No human hangover trial	Approved wording only on two registered herbal medicines	No trial

Do B vitamins, vitamin C or zinc change a hangover?

The 214-person trial is the key one: its vitamin, mineral and antioxidant arm "did not lead to a statistically significant improvement in hangover symptoms".²⁰ Among 13 hangover-prone social drinkers in a dietary-recall study, higher nicotinic acid (vitamin B3) and zinc intakes went with less severe hangovers, a finding the authors say "should be replicated in a larger sample".²⁸ The vitamin B6 belief traces to a 1973 trial of pyritinol, a medicine derived from vitamin B6 rather than the vitamin itself, rated very low quality.^{1, 29}

What a label may say is separate, set by the Great Britain register and attached to the nutrient alone.³⁰ "Vitamin C contributes to the reduction of tiredness and fatigue" and "Vitamin B6 contributes to the reduction of tiredness and fatigue" are authorised, as is the same sentence for riboflavin, niacin, pantothenic acid, B12, folate and iron, where a serving supplies 15% of the nutrient reference value. None is a statement about drinking. See when to take a B complex.

Has any hangover patch been tested?

No trial of a hangover patch appears in the 2022 review or the 2021 audit, and none turned up on PubMed in October 2026. Patches carry B vitamins, vitamin C, magnesium or plant extracts, so the question is whether nutrients cross the skin. A 2021 review of transdermal micronutrient delivery concluded that "limited evidence exists for its efficacy in humans", with non-randomised studies pointing to "sub-optimal delivery of iron through skin patches".³¹ In the one comparison, 17 gastric-bypass patients on a daily multivitamin patch against 27 on pills for a year, 82.35% of patch users had at least one deficiency against 40.74%, with lower blood vitamin D, B1 and B12.³²

Can you take paracetamol or ibuprofen with a hangover?

No placebo-controlled trial of a shop-bought painkiller for hangover was found; the anti-inflammatory medicines tested were prescription medicines. The NHS medicine pages, which are about the medicines rather than hangovers, say this. Paracetamol: "You can eat and drink normally (including alcohol), when taking paracetamol", though it "may not be suitable if" you have "a kidney or liver condition" or "you're dependent on alcohol or binge drink (drink heavily over a short period of time)".³³ Ibuprofen: "You can eat and drink normally while taking ibuprofen, but try to avoid drinking a lot of alcohol because this can increase the risk of side effects", which include "indigestion and stomach aches" and "bleeding inside your stomach".³⁴ Both pages say to "speak to a pharmacist or doctor" if you are not sure; no choice, dose or timing is given here. Food and fluids: what to eat and drink with a hangover.

Frequently asked questions

How long do hangover tablets take to have an effect?

No trial measured onset; products were taken before drinking and symptoms scored at set points up to 15 hours later. How the body clears alcohol: how long alcohol stays in your system.

What do people in Korea take after drinking?

The pear, ginseng, raisin tree and live-culture trials were all Korean: crossovers of 14 to 54 people, several maker-involved, none repeated elsewhere. The pre-drinking ones are picked up in what to eat and drink before drinking alcohol.

Do live cultures change a hangover score?

Four small crossovers of different strains: acetaldehyde lower in each, scores "improved" in three, "no marked improvements" in the largest.^{14, 15, 16, 17} Acetaldehyde is explained in what causes a hangover.

Does milk thistle do anything for a hangover?

No human hangover trial was found. Two milk thistle products are registered traditional herbal medicines with overindulgence wording, the lawful route; a food supplement may not carry liver claims beside alcohol.

Why can a product say "reduces tiredness" but not "hangover"?

The first is an authorised sentence about a nutrient; the second is a medicinal claim. Side by side on a pack sold for a night out, the regulator reads the message, not the words.

If you are worried about your drinking

"Drinkline is the national alcohol helpline. If you're worried about your own or someone else's drinking, you can call this free helpline in complete confidence. Call 0300 123 1110 (weekdays 9am to 8pm, weekends 11am to 4pm)." "A good place to start is with a GP."³⁵ In Scotland, NHS inform lists Drinkline Scotland on 0800 7314 314.³⁶ The NHS low-risk guidance is that "men and women are advised not to drink more than 14 units a week on a regular basis", "spread your drinking over 3 or more days if you regularly drink as much as 14 units a week" and "try to have several drink-free days each week", and "It's called 'low risk' rather than 'safe' because there's no safe drinking level."³⁷ "Call 999 if: you think someone has alcohol poisoning; you or someone else has had a seizure or fit; someone has lost consciousness; someone has stopped breathing."³⁸