The active ingredient aminophenazone has an antipyretic and analgesic effect. However, the analgesic is controversial because of its side effects. In some European countries, it is therefore no longer sold on the open market.
What is aminophenazone?
The active ingredient aminophenazone is believed to have an antipyretic and analgesic effect. About 120 years ago, medical research began to obtain aminophenazone from the basic substance phenazone. This is a white powder. Its solubility in water is very high. Around 1900, the first drugs containing aminophenazone came into use. Due to the intensive reduction during extraction, these possessed a strong sedative effect. Pain was dampened, fever was lowered, and the entire organism could be relaxed. It thus had a certain relevance before major interventions. Often the remedy was administered to calm down the patients. However, its importance was greater in the aftercare of diseases and wounds. Inflammations of any kind could be alleviated with it. Other symptoms were also resolved comparatively quickly with the aminophenazone. Side effects did not occur – but these set in with long-term use.
Pharmacologic effect
Aminophenazone is almost invariably taken orally. It can have here thus the form of tablets and capsules, likewise however in a liquid to be dissolved. In this way, the active ingredient enters the bloodstream and the individual tissue cells. There it is able to bind with the various plasma proteins – more than 100 of them can be detected in total. Certain chemical processes would take place on these proteins without administration of the drug. They, in turn, can be the basis for the transport of pain and other sensations through the nervous system to the brain. However, by blocking the proteins, a perception of discomfort is reduced. The patient is put into a calm state. Similarly, plasma proteins are involved in the development of acute as well as chronic inflammation. Consequently, by accessing the aminophenazone, this danger is also reduced. Thus, in the further course, equally sores cannot spread. In addition, the fever that occurs is prevented.
Medical application and use
The possible applications of aminophenazone were and are varied. The drug is applied to diseases associated with fever, pain and inflammation. Due to its sedative effect, it has always been used as a supportive agent in small doses as part of sleeping pills and anesthetics. Thanks to the rapid effect and high absorption in the body, the drug gained considerable importance. Another positive aspect was that the active ingredient seemed to be largely free of spontaneously occurring side effects. Consequently, its use remained quite high until the 1960s and 1970s. It was not until a study published in the mid-1970s that a concrete indication was given of the long-term side effects. These could have a strongly health-endangering to fatal character. Aminophenazone thus increasingly moved out of the focus of medical application. In some European countries, it can no longer be found as a component of freely available drugs. It is thus administered without exception by physicians – and even that only in very low doses that can be justified at any time.
Risks and side effects
Mainly, aminophenazone has two serious side effects. The first lies in the long-term reduction of granulocytes present in the blood. These belong to the white blood cell group and to that extent are involved in a strong immune system. The reduction of the same thus leads to a weakness of the body to defend itself against internal and external influences. The second effect is seen in a strong promotion of carcinogenic cells. Metastases could be detected in a disproportionately high number of consumers. This was also the case in patients who had taken the aminophenazone only in small amounts. The side effects of the drug are thus very intense and unjustifiable in use by laypersons. In the long term, the drug seems to have a damaging rather than a helpful effect on the organism.
