Which of the following medicine can be classified as both Analgesics and Antipyretics ?
A. Veronal
B. Benadryl
C. Penicillin
D. Paracetamol

Question

Which of the following medicine can be classified as both Analgesics and Antipyretics  ?
A. Veronal
B. Benadryl
C. Penicillin
D. Paracetamol

UnlockIAS · Accepted Answer

Correct — option (4), Only D. Paracetamol (acetaminophen) is one of the most familiar drugs that is genuinely both an analgesic and an antipyretic: it relieves mild-to-moderate pain (headache, muscle ache, toothache) by acting on pain pathways in the central nervous system, and it lowers fever by acting on the hypothalamic heat-regulating centre to reset the body's temperature set-point, chiefly through inhibition of prostaglandin synthesis in the brain. This dual analgesic-and-antipyretic action is exactly why paracetamol is the standard first-line drug reached for both for pain relief and for bringing down fever, and it is why it alone matches the question's 'both' requirement. Statement A, Veronal, is barbital, one of the earliest barbiturate drugs, classed as a sedative-hypnotic used to induce sleep or sedation — it is not designed or used as either a pain reliever or a fever reducer. Statement B, Benadryl, is the brand name for diphenhydramine, an antihistamine used to treat allergic symptoms and, at higher doses, as a sedative/sleep aid — again, neither an analgesic nor an antipyretic in its primary action. Statement C, Penicillin, is an antibiotic that kills or inhibits bacteria; it treats the underlying infection that may be causing a fever, but it has no direct analgesic or antipyretic action of its own — a fever from a bacterial infection subsides because the infection is cleared, not because penicillin itself lowers the body's temperature set-point. Since only paracetamol genuinely functions as both an analgesic and an antipyretic, the correct set is 'Only D'.

Why the other options are wrong — (a) This selects Veronal (barbital) alone, but barbital is a barbiturate sedative-hypnotic, used historically to induce sleep and sedation by depressing the central nervous system — it has no established analgesic or antipyretic action, and choosing it alone also omits paracetamol, the drug that actually fits both criteria.  (b) This correctly includes D (paracetamol, which is genuinely both an analgesic and antipyretic) but incorrectly pairs it with A, Veronal, a barbiturate sedative-hypnotic with no analgesic or antipyretic function. Adding a sedative to a genuinely dual-action drug does not make the pair correct; it only shows the sedative was misclassified.  (c) This pairs Benadryl (diphenhydramine, an antihistamine/sedative used for allergies and sleep) with Penicillin (an antibiotic that treats bacterial infection), and neither drug is an analgesic or an antipyretic in its own pharmacological action. Penicillin can indirectly end a fever by curing the infection causing it, but that is not the same as having a direct antipyretic effect on the body's temperature-regulating centre, and this option also entirely omits paracetamol, the one drug that actually qualifies.

Concept: Drugs are classified by their primary pharmacological action: analgesics relieve pain, antipyretics reduce fever, antibiotics kill or inhibit bacteria, antihistamines counter allergic (histamine-mediated) reactions, and sedative-hypnotics induce calm or sleep. Some drugs, notably paracetamol and the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) such as aspirin and ibuprofen, act on the same underlying biochemical pathway — inhibition of prostaglandin synthesis via the enzyme cyclooxygenase (COX) — giving them combined analgesic and antipyretic effects, and in the case of NSAIDs, anti-inflammatory effects as well. Paracetamol's action is concentrated mainly in the central nervous system, which is why it is a strong analgesic and antipyretic but only a weak anti-inflammatory agent compared with NSAIDs. Drugs belonging to other categories entirely — sedatives like barbital, antihistamines like diphenhydramine, and antibiotics like penicillin — do not share this prostaglandin-based mechanism and so do not carry analgesic or antipyretic properties of their own.

State PCS 2025 Q68 — Science & Technology PYQ with Answer

State PCS 2025 Q68 — Science & Technology PYQ with Answer