notthisshitagain
19-09-2008, 06:42 AM
Babies and toddlers who are given the common painkiller paracetamol to relieve fever are much more likely to develop asthma or eczema at primary school, new research suggests.
But Australian respiratory specialists warn it is unclear from the international study whether the drugs actually cause the allergic conditions and urge parents not to avoid the drug when their children are sick.
The research, published in The Lancet , showed that use of paracetamol in the first few years of life increases the risk of having an allergic condition at aged seven by almost 50 per cent.
Children given the drug frequently had triple the risk of developing asthma and the allergic nose condition rhino conjunctivitis, and a double risk of eczema, said the study leader Professor Richard Beasley, of the Medical Research Institute of New Zealand .
"This study provides worldwide evidence that the use of paracetamol in childhood can increase the risk of developing asthma and related allergic disorders," Prof Beasley said.
Involving more than 200,000 children from 31 countries including Australia, the research is the strongest of its kind and could explain the mysterious increase in childhood asthma seen in Australia and New Zealand over the past 50 years.
But Prof Beasley stressed the results required more studies and were not firm enough to justify stopping use of the common painkiller.
"Paracetamol remains the preferred drug to relieve pain and fever in children," the researchers wrote.
"However the findings do lend support to the current guidelines of the World Health Organisation , which recommend that paracetamol should not be used routinely, but should be reserved for children with a high fever."
Dr Raymond Mullins, a consultant physician and president of the Australasian Society for Clinical Immunology and Allergy, said the findings represented a "fascinating phenomenon" that had the potential to influence doctors' approach to treating fever in young children.
But Dr Adrian Lowe, a researcher at the Centre for Molecular, Environmental, Genetic and Analytic Epidemiology at the University of Melbourne , was more cautious, saying there might be another explanation for the link.
"There are a number of early life infections that have been linked to increased risk of asthma," Dr Lowe said.
"So in this type of observational study it is hard to separate whether it is the paracetamol or the underlying infection, for which the paracetamol was given, that is the cause for the increased risk of asthma."
Source:http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/-/latest/5026688/study-links-fever-drug-asthma-kids/
But Australian respiratory specialists warn it is unclear from the international study whether the drugs actually cause the allergic conditions and urge parents not to avoid the drug when their children are sick.
The research, published in The Lancet , showed that use of paracetamol in the first few years of life increases the risk of having an allergic condition at aged seven by almost 50 per cent.
Children given the drug frequently had triple the risk of developing asthma and the allergic nose condition rhino conjunctivitis, and a double risk of eczema, said the study leader Professor Richard Beasley, of the Medical Research Institute of New Zealand .
"This study provides worldwide evidence that the use of paracetamol in childhood can increase the risk of developing asthma and related allergic disorders," Prof Beasley said.
Involving more than 200,000 children from 31 countries including Australia, the research is the strongest of its kind and could explain the mysterious increase in childhood asthma seen in Australia and New Zealand over the past 50 years.
But Prof Beasley stressed the results required more studies and were not firm enough to justify stopping use of the common painkiller.
"Paracetamol remains the preferred drug to relieve pain and fever in children," the researchers wrote.
"However the findings do lend support to the current guidelines of the World Health Organisation , which recommend that paracetamol should not be used routinely, but should be reserved for children with a high fever."
Dr Raymond Mullins, a consultant physician and president of the Australasian Society for Clinical Immunology and Allergy, said the findings represented a "fascinating phenomenon" that had the potential to influence doctors' approach to treating fever in young children.
But Dr Adrian Lowe, a researcher at the Centre for Molecular, Environmental, Genetic and Analytic Epidemiology at the University of Melbourne , was more cautious, saying there might be another explanation for the link.
"There are a number of early life infections that have been linked to increased risk of asthma," Dr Lowe said.
"So in this type of observational study it is hard to separate whether it is the paracetamol or the underlying infection, for which the paracetamol was given, that is the cause for the increased risk of asthma."
Source:http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/-/latest/5026688/study-links-fever-drug-asthma-kids/