Kids With Mild Asthma Can Take Acetaminophen: Study

Finding counters past research suggesting popular over-the-counter remedy worsens symptoms

By Robert Preidt

Wednesday, August 17, 2016

WEDNESDAY, Aug. 17, 2016 (HealthDay News) -- Acetaminophen does not worsen asthma symptoms in young children, a new study finds.

Acetaminophen (Tylenol, Panadol) and ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin) are often used to treat pain and fever. Some previous research has suggested that frequent use of acetaminophen may worsen asthma in kids with the respiratory condition.

To investigate, researchers studied 300 children between the ages of 1 and 5 with mild, persistent asthma, which is defined as having symptoms more than two days a week, but not daily. All of the children used daily inhaled treatments to manage their asthma.

During the study, they received either acetaminophen or ibuprofen to treat pain or fever.

The small percentage of kids whose asthma symptoms worsened was about the same with both medications, according to the study published in the Aug. 18 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

The findings could help guide the care of children with asthma, according to the researchers.

The research was led by Dr. William Sheehan of the divisions of allergy and immunology and respiratory diseases at Boston Children's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, in Boston.

SOURCE: U.S. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, news release, Aug. 17, 2016

HealthDay

News stories are provided by HealthDay and do not reflect the views of MedlinePlus, the National Library of Medicine, the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, or federal policy.