Open your medicine box. You will almost certainly have a pack or bottle of dipyrone inside it.
It is not surprising, because, according to the National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa), in 2022 alone, more than 215 million units of the drug were sold.
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It, dipyrone, is always one of the first options for doctors and mothers to relieve pain and fever. It is always on the list of the most purchased medicines around here.
What not everyone knows is that dipyrone has been banned for many years in the United States and in several European countries. Understand the reasons for this and learn why the same does not happen in Brazil!
barred
The reason for this prohibition in so many countries is agranulocytosis, one of the possible side effects of the drug.
It is a serious change in the blood that leads to a drastic drop in the amount of some types of cellsof defense.
However, this is just a possibility that began to be expressed from 1964 onwards. That year, an article showed that one in every 127 people who took aminopyrine (a substance with a structure very similar to dipyrone) developed agranulocytosis.
The authors of the article, however, took into account only the similarity between the two substances. As is common knowledge, what is similar is not necessarily identical.
However, the damage had already been done and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), a US agency equivalent to Anvisa, banned dipyrone in the country in 1977.
Following the US, Australia, Japan, the UK and some parts of Europe have also banned the sale of the drug.
(Image: publicity)
Time has vindicated dipyrone — or almost
Beginning in the 1980s, new evidence showed that the drug is, in fact, safe. A new study, conducted with 22.2 million people from eight countries (Israel, Germany, Italy, Hungary, Spain, Bulgaria and Sweden), challenged the previous survey, with only 127 participants.
The result was an incidence of 1.1 cases of agranulocytosis per 1 million people. This is a very low incidence, which proves that dipyrone is a drug that can be used without fear.
Later studies, carried out in Israel, showed that the chances of developing the blood alteration with the use of the medicine are less than 1% - and the possibility of death is even smaller.
However, population numbers in Sweden have once again painted dipyrone as a villain. In 1990, the country released the drug, but nine years later it went back, with 14 episodes of agranulocytosis possibly linked to the use of the drug.
In Brazil
Here, dipyrone is released, but it has always been widely studied. Between January 2002 and December 2005, scientists from Brazil, Argentina and Mexico reviewed data from 548 million people who had ingested the drug.
Fifty-two cases of agranulocytosis were found, which represents a rate of 0.38 cases per million inhabitants per year. Therefore, it is a drug considered safe for our population.
What explains this change in numbers from one country to another?
Who has the answer to this question is Danyelle Marini, director of the São Paulo Regional Council of Pharmacy.
In an interview with the BBC, she explained that "there is a genetic mutation that seems to facilitate the appearance" of the blood condition in some people. Such genes are, in fact, more present in individuals from the US and parts of Europe.
In addition, higher dosages and prolonged use may also influence the onset of agranulocytosis.
Graduated in Social Communication at the Federal University of Goiás. Passionate about digital media, pop culture, technology, politics and psychoanalysis.
