Comparative evaluation of the antipyretic efficacy of ibuprofen and paracetamol.

An open multicentric trial was conducted on 175 patients to compare the antipyretic efficacy of ibuprofen (7 mg/kg) and paracetamol (8 mg/kg). Children between the age of 4 months and 12 years with fever were admitted to the study, 85 in the ibuprofen group and 90 in the paracetamol group. The axillary temperatures were recorded at half hourly intervals for 2 hours. The mean fall in temperature at 1, 1.5 and 2 hours was similar in both groups and the differences were not statistically significant (p>0.05). At half hour, the fall in temperature (mean ± SEM) for ibuprofen was 0.1975±0.0409 and for paracetamol was 0.3843±0.0490.