Acetaminophen in Combination With NAC Versus Placebo in Treating Fever

N-acetyl-p-aminophenol (APAP), or more commonly known as acetaminophen in the United States,
accounts for more overdose and overdose deaths in the United States and United Kingdom than
any other pharmaceutical agent. If N-acetylcysteine (NAC) is given within 8 to 10 hours of
APAP ingestion, it has been shown to prevent serious liver failure and death in the setting
of overdoses. Therefore, it may be beneficial to administer APAP in combination with NAC
routinely to reduce rates of liver failure and death. Because NAC's main role is to reduce
the accumulation of APAP's toxic metabolites, the concomitant administration of NAC should
have no impact on the efficacy of APAP as an antipyretic and analgesic. Thus, we propose a
single-center, non-inferiority randomized control study comparing the efficacy of the
APAP-NAC combination as compared to APAP-placebo as an anti-pyretic agent.