"There has been a tendency for (general practitioners), pediatricians,
pharmacists and nurses to emphasize the common perception that acetaminophen is
safer than ibuprofen," study author Dr. David A. Perrott told Reuters Health.
"But, taken as a whole, the studies we reviewed provide no evidence that one
drug is any less safe than the other," he noted.
Perrott cautioned that these findings are based on scant research comparing
how well and safely ibuprofen and acetaminophen work for children.
Indeed, in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine report, he and
his colleagues recommend "more research" into the safety and effectiveness of
these two drugs in treating kids' pain or fever from ailments such as headaches,
muscle aches and colds or the flu.
Currently, acetaminophen and ibuprofen are the most common treatments used to
relieve pain and fever. Research in adults suggests that the two drugs stack up
equally well, yet investigations into their use in children have yielded mixed
results.
To get a clearer picture, Perrott and colleagues reviewed 17 trials involving
children and teens less than 18 years old "receiving either drug to treat fever
or moderate to severe pain."
The investigators found that both drugs appeared to treat children's pain
equally well, although ibuprofen appeared somewhat better at reducing fever.
Both drugs also appeared to be equally safe, and just as harmless as an
inactive placebo.
Perrott, who is now based at TrialGraphix in Chicago, explained that
ibuprofen may do a slightly better job of reducing kids' fever than
acetaminophen partly because it relies on a different mechanism to reduce
temperature.
He added that the current study looks only at instances where kids got a
single, regulated dose of the drugs. "We did not review studies examining what
happens when you take combinations of the drugs or repeated doses over time,"
Perrott noted.
The study was partly funded by Boots Healthcare Australia Pty Ltd, a division
of Boots Healthcare International, which makes a form of ibuprofen.
SOURCE: Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, June 2004.
