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Risks of Common Pain Killers Are Underestimated

October 16, 2007

- ScienceDaily –

Doctors are worried with the fact that the patients, taking common non-steroidal anti-inflammatory pain relievers (NSAIDs) on a regular basis, underestimate the potential health risks of gastrointestinal complications, such as GI bleeding, ulcers and perforation, associated with the regular use of OTC and prescribed NSAIDs. This issue was discussed recently at the Annual Scientific Meeting of the American College of Gastroenterology.

According to a survey conducted by Dr. Johnson and his colleagues at Eastern Virginia Medical School among the patients of private GI clinic, almost one in five participants of the survey noted that he did not report about the use of NSAID pain killers to the doctors of the clinic or to the nursing staff. The reason for such behavior is a widely spread misperception of common pain killers, such as aspirin, Aleve and Celebrex, as the absolutely safe and benign medications, which cannot lead to any serious side effects.

At the same time, specialists of gastroenterology are seriously concerned with the GI complications linked to the regular use of NSAIDs. According to the statistics about 100 000 of Americans are hospitalized each year with the GI bleeding or ulcers, and up to 20 000 of people die each year because of GI complications, associated with the NSAIDs use.

Health care providers also note that the special attention to the possible side effects of NSAIDs use should be paid by people, suffering from arthritis, because they use pain relieving medications on a daily basis for long periods of time, and thus are more likely to experience the above mentioned side effects. People should always inform their doctors about the use of any medication, even if it is OTC, in order to avoid or at least minimize the potential side effects.

For the time being, in order to lower the risks of GI bleeding and ulcers, associated with the use of Celebrex and other common pain relievers, doctors recommend taking acid suppressive medications. The most popular are proton pump inhibitors, such as Prevacid, Prilosec and Nexium.

It is interesting to note that another analysis, conducted by Dr. Sonal Singh, assistant professor of internal medicine at Wake Forest University School of Medicine, showed that the risks of GI bleeding may increase six times in those people who take NSAIDs along with some of the common antidepressants, such as Celexa, Paxil, Prozac and Zoloft.

After analyzing data from four studies with about 153 000 participants, the scientists found out that the use of antidepressant drugs called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) itself can double the risks of patients to develop gastrointestinal bleeding. Those people who were treated with antidepressants along with pain relievers were six times more likely to develop such a serious complication as the GI bleeding.

Nick

External resources
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071015081501.htm
http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=84510