Brief history of antipyretic therapy.

Both external cooling and pharmacotherapy have been used to treat fever since time immemorial. In the past century such treatments have proliferated at an astonishing rate. The COX-2 inhibitors are the most recent additions to the antipyretic pharmacopoeia. Additional research is needed to determine whether they represent an important new chapter in antipyretic therapy's long history or, for that matter, if the benefits of any currently available treatment for fever outweigh its cost.