“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 intra-articular corticosteroids. In trying to answer his question, I began by explaining the cardiovascular risks of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs.1 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.2 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.