Interesting. I had a talk with my GP about this very subject; I wondered why she didn't just rx me tramadol instead of Zaldiar (which is 37,5mg of tramadol with the 325mg of paracetamol).

She is convinced that for some reason - in her experience - the combination does work better than if you would take them separately. The neurologist - I asked him the same question - agreed.

Now, I'm not saying that they are right. But she does not think I would abuse tramadol, and would be happy to give me the "pure" version instead.

BTW, the max dosage of Zaldiar is 8 per day (I do 4 to 6, and less lately). That's a potential maximum of 2600mg of paracetamol/day - I'm guessing there is a reason for it to be 325mg in the different combinations?