People who are using paracetamol pills for long-term pain relief are more likely to develop cardiovascular, gastrointestinal and renal problems and a daily intake could raise the risk of heart attacks, stroke and early death.
According to new research, the drug – which is the most widely used over-the-counter and prescription analgesic and considered safer than aspirin and ibuprofen – increases the risk of an unexpected death by 63 percent and the risk of having a heart attack or stroke with 68 percent. Also, there is a 50 percent greater chance of having a stomach ulcer or bleed, says the study published in the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases.
The British team of researchers, led by Professor Philip Conaghan of the Leeds Institute of Rheumatic and Musculoskeletal Medicine notes that the analgesic benefit of paracetamol has recently been questioned in the management of acute lower back pain and the chronic painful condition of osteoarthritis and a recent estimate of the true risks of paracetamol at standard analgesic doses has not been available.
“We believe the true risk of paracetamol prescription to be higher than that currently perceived in the clinical community. Given its high usage and availability as an over-the-counter analgesic, a systematic review of paracetamol’s efficacy and tolerability in individual conditions is warranted,” the authors concluded.
The scientists reviewed eight studies in the medical literature and found four that reported cardiovascular adverse events one of them even reported an increased risk ratio from 1.19 to 1.68. In case of gastrointestinal adverse events, one study showed a higher relative rate of events or bleeds from 1.11 to 1.49. Researchers note that the eight observational studies were likely to have biases because the patients might have had multiple medical problems
Paracetamol is recommended as a first-line pharmacological therapy for a multitude of acute and chronic painful conditions and it is also generally considered to be safer than other commonly used analgesics such as non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs or opiates.