The body can develop a fever in response to medication, known as drug fever, which can be mistaken for infection or autoimmune reactions. Treatment involves stopping the drug, and rechallenge can be used to confirm the diagnosis. Genetics can also play a role in drug fever.
The human body is capable of increasing body temperature in response to infection or other triggers. This fever can also occur in some people as a response to medications, in which case it is called “drug fever.” The fever usually goes away once the medicine is stopped, but it can come back if the medicine is restarted. Examples of medications that can cause drug fever include a variety of antibiotics, some anticancer drugs, and some anesthetics.
Drug fever appears to be quite common in patients with unexplained fever. Medical explanations for fever include problems such as infection or autoimmune reaction, so these factors can be mistaken for drug fever and vice versa. Treatment generally involves stopping use of the drug and replacing it with another drug, but if this is not possible, other drugs such as corticosteroids may be given to help reduce the fever.
Patients can develop a high temperature as a reaction to a drug in several ways. The most likely cause is that the body’s immune response overreacts to the drug molecules within the body and produces a feverish reaction under the mistaken impression that the drug is an infectious organism. Some medications can interfere with how the body maintains its temperature within a normal range, causing the body to warm up.
Another possible mechanism of drug fever is that the destruction of infectious organisms by the drug produces fever. Bacteria, for example, contain substances called pyrogens in their cellular structure, which strongly provoke a feverish response by the immune system. The body doesn’t realize that pyrogens represent just fragments of dead organisms, which don’t require a fever to help kill. While rigorous manufacturing processes help reduce the presence of dead organism fragments in medicinal products, some may contain pyrogens; when injected, they elicit this same feverish response. Genetics is another reason drug fever is more likely in some people than others, as individual response to the drug can vary.
A technique called rechallenge can be employed by doctors to assess whether it is truly a drug that is causing a fever. This involves temporarily stopping the drug until the fever subsides and then re-administering the drug. If the fever comes back, drug fever is likely to blame for the high temperature. This diagnostic method, however, carries the risk of side effects from the drug.
Protect your devices with Threat Protection by NordVPN
