Link Suggested in Hypertension and Painkillers

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

HICAGO, Oct. 27 (AP) — The pain relievers ibuprofen and acetaminophen, contained in scores of over-the-counter remedies, may increase the risk of high blood pressure, a study of women suggests.

Skeptics say the connection needs more confirmation in better-designed studies, and the Harvard researchers who conducted the study do not recommend that people stop taking the medications. But the authors said their findings were plausible given what is known about how the drugs affect the body.

The study, to be published in the Archives of Internal Medicine on Monday, involved 80,020 women ages 31 to 50 who participated in a nurses' health study and were not known to have high blood pressure at the outset. They were asked in 1995 about their use of painkillers. Information about high blood pressure was obtained from a survey two years later.

In those two years, 1,650 participants developed high blood pressure. Women who reported taking acetaminophen 22 days a month or more were twice as likely to develop high blood pressure, or hypertension, as women who did not use the drug. Those who used nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory medicines, mostly ibuprofen, that frequently were 86 percent more likely to develop hypertension than nonusers. Aspirin use did not appear to be associated with an increased risk.

Acetaminophen is contained in Tylenol and ibuprofen is in Motrin, two of the most popular over-the-counter painkillers.

While the relative risks sound high, the results suggest that the vast majority of women taking the medications will not develop high blood pressure, said Dr. William J. Elliott, an internal medicine and pharmacology specialist at Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center in Chicago.

Dr. Elliott, who was not involved in the research, also noted that the study lacked essential information on the doses participants used.

Ibuprofen and similar drugs may raise blood pressure by blocking production of prostaglandins, hormone-like substances that can widen blood vessels and improve blood flow. The drugs also can increase sodium retention.

Dr. Anthony Temple of McNeil Consumer and Specialty Products, the maker of Tylenol, Motrin and St. Joseph aspirin, said the study "does not show any cause and effect relationship."

One author of the study, Dr. Gary Curhan of the School of Public Health at Harvard, said that because the drugs were so widely used, the possible connection merited further study.