Fever Reducer / Pain Reliever Increases Death Rate

WARNING: Fever Reducer/ Pain Reliever Increases Death Rate <Research>.

Trauma patients who were aggressively treated for fever died at a much higher rate than those not aggressively treated.

In this study, the fever reducer used was acetaminophen / Tylenol.

The acetaminophen treated group had more than a 50% increase in infections and a 700% increase in deaths when compared to the untreated group.

The study was stopped at the first preliminary analysis because of the results clearly indicating an associated higher death rate when taking a fever reducer medication.

Acetaminophen treatment of critically ill study CONCLUSIONS:

“Aggressively treating fever in critically ill patients may lead to a higher mortality rate.“

A fever is a natural response of our body that helps us fight an infection.

There is a huge amount of evidence demonstrating that fevers are beneficial in our body’s ability to fight an infection. Despite this well established knowledge, fever reducers are very commonly used to reduce a fever in ill people.

It should be noted that every situation is different and that very high fevers can cause serious problems.

Reference:
The effect of antipyretic therapy upon outcomes in critically ill patients: a randomized, prospective study. Surg Infect (Larchmt). 2010 Oct;11(5):495. Li, Pam; Alhaddad, Ahmed.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16433601/