Does paracetamol cause hypertension?

“Doc, I read in the paper that painkillers can give you high blood pressure. What do you think?”My patient was a 49 year old man with rheumatoid arthritis. His disease had previously been severe, but it had been improving in recent months with etanercept and intraarticular corticosteroids. In trying to answer his question, I began by explaining the cardiovascular risks of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. However, the newspaper article he had read also linked paracetamol to the development of hypertension. I had not heard of this risk before. Together, we retrieved the newspaper article from the internet. It cited a recent American study which linked analgesic use to hypertension. I felt sceptical about this finding, but I needed to keep an open mind about this potentially common and important risk. I resolved to locate and appraise the study and to share my findings with my patient at a future consultation.