Difference Between Analgesic and Antipyretic

The key difference between analgesic and antipyretic is that analgesic is a medication that relieves pain selectively without blocking the conduction of nerve impulses affecting consciousness or significantly altering sensory perception, while antipyretic is a medication that reduces fever through lowering body temperature.

Inflammation is a result of the collective responses of chemical mediators to an injury or infection. Acute inflammation is very short-lived and localized to the site of injury or infection. Chronic inflammation occurs when the inflammation response is unsuccessful. Acute inflammation often causes symptoms such as pain, redness or swelling. The common symptoms of chronic inflammation are fatigue, fever, mouth sores, rashes, abominable pain and chest pain. Analgesic and antipyretics are two medications that are used in hospitals to reduce pain and fever.

CONTENTS

1. Overview and Key Difference
2. What is Analgesic 
3.  What is Antipyretic
4. Similarities – Analgesic and Antipyretic
5. Analgesic vs Antipyretic in Tabular Form
6. Summary – Analgesic vs Antipyretic

What is an Analgesic?

Analgesic is a medication that relieves pain selectively without blocking the conduction of nerve impulses, affecting consciousness or significantly altering sensory perception. The analgesic medication suppresses the pain. There are two main types of analgesic medications commonly used in the health industry. They are non-narcotic analgesics and opioid analgesics.

Types of Analgesic Medications

Non-narcotic analgesics relieve pain by reducing inflammatory responses. Opioid analgesics act on specific centers in the brain. Some preparations combine both non-narcotic and opioid to enhance the effect.

Non-narcotic analgesics include preparations such as salicylic acid and its derivatives (aspirin, sodium salicylate, salicylamide), Anilides (paracetamol, bucetin, phenacetin, propacetamo), and pyrazolones (metamizole sodium, aminophenazone, nifenazone, phenazone). Non-narcotic analgesics also have an antipyretic effect.

On the other hand, opioid analgesics can be used for both short term and long term relief of pain. They are also used in severe pain situations. Moreover, opioid analgesics have the ability to induce sleep. Also, opioid analgesics are often much more effective against pain, so they can be addictive. Therefore, they have a greater risk of side effects if used without a prescription from a medical practitioner.

Side Effects

The side effects of non-narcotic analgesics include damage to the gastrointestinal tract and kidneys, reduction in the number of platelets in the blood, and reduction in the number of leukocytes which increase the chance of developing infections, anemia, allergic reactions. Meanwhile, the main side effects of opioid analgesics are in the digestive system and central nervous system. They cause drowsiness, constipation, nausea, dizziness, and allergic reactions.

What is Antipyretic?

Antipyretic is a medication that reduces fever by lowering body temperature. Therefore, antipyretic drugs reduce fever drastically. The mechanism that they use to reduce fever is blocking prostaglandins. This causes the hypothalamus to stop increasing body temperature. Therefore, antipyretics and other basic treatments together can control the causes of the fever. Some of the most commonly use analgesic include paracetamol, acetylsalicylic acid and ibuprofen. Though metamizole can be used as an antipyretic, it is already banned in over 30 countries for causing agranulocytosis.

Most antipyretic medications have other purposes, such as analgesic effect. Anyhow, there are some debates over their use in the health industry. This is because recent research by the Royal Society claims fever suppression cause at least 1% more influenza deaths in the US. Moreover, their side effects include allergic reactions, hoarseness, swelling, difficulty in breathing, hives, itching, and rash.

What are the Similarities Between Analgesic and Antipyretic?

• Analgesic and antipyretic are two drugs used in the health industry.
• Both of them sometimes have common effects.
• They reduce the symptoms of inflammation.
• Both have significant effects on controlling human diseases.
• They can block prostaglandins.

What is the Difference Between Analgesic and Antipyretic?

Analgesic is a medication that relieves pain selectively without blocking the conduction of nerve impulses, affecting consciousness or significantly altering sensory perception. On the other hand, antipyretic is a medication that reduces fever by lowering body temperature. So, this is the key difference between analgesic and antipyretic. Furthermore, analgesics are used for both short term and long-term treatments. In contrast, antipyretics are used for short term treatment. Thus, this is another difference between analgesic and antipyretic.

Below is a summary of the difference between analgesic and antipyretic in tabular form.

Summary – Analgesic vs Antipyretic

The symptoms of inflammation, such as pain and fever are different manifestations of the same process. Therefore, often same drugs are used to reduce these symptoms normally. Analgesic and antipyretics are two medications that are used in hospitals to reduce pain and fever. Analgesic is a medication that relieves pain selectively, while antipyretic is a medication that reduces fever. Thus, this is the key difference between analgesic and antipyretic.

Reference:

1. “List of Common Analgesics + Uses, Types & Side Effects.” Drugs.com.
2. Aronoff DM; Neilson. “Antipyretics: Mechanisms of Action and Clinical Use in Fever Suppression.” The American Journal of Medicine, U.S. National Library of Medicine.

Image Courtesy:

1. “A few weeks in Vietnam 308” By JaulaDeArdilla (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) via Flickr
2. “200mg ibuprofen tablets” By Ragesoss – Own work (CC BY-SA 3.0) via Commons Wikimedia