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Popular painkillers can increase heart attack risks, study shows
By Jeremy Laurance, Health Editor
Wednesday, 12 January 2011
Over-the-counter painkillers used for treating inflammation, such as ibuprofen, may double or treble the risk of heart attacks and strokes in vulnerable people, researchers warn.
People who take the drugs occasionally for a headache or period pains are unlikely to be affected, but older people with arthritis and heart problems who take the drugs regularly and in large doses are at a higher risk.
Researchers in Switzerland analysed 31 trials involving 116,429 patients to estimate the cardiovascular risks of all non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDS) against placebos. Previous research has suggested an increased risk of cardiovascular problems linked with the drugs.
They found that ibuprofen increased the risk of stroke threefold, while diclofenac and etoricoxib had four times the risk of causing death from heart attack or stroke. Naproxen was the least harmful among the seven drugs analysed. The study is published in the British Medical Journal.
What about aspirin?
Aspirin, the most widely used non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID), was not included in the study by the researchers in Switzerland because there were no large-scale trials in which it was tested.
Research shows that at low doses it protects the heart, but the leader of the study, Professor Peter Juni, of the University of Bern, said at the large doses necessary to have a significant painkilling effect – more than one gram a day – it was likely to increase the risk of heart attack and stroke in the same way as other NSAIDs.
Aspirin also carries a risk of gastric bleeding, the most common reason why it is discontinued in the treatment of chronic pain.
By Jeremy Laurance, Health Editor
Wednesday, 12 January 2011
Over-the-counter painkillers used for treating inflammation, such as ibuprofen, may double or treble the risk of heart attacks and strokes in vulnerable people, researchers warn.
People who take the drugs occasionally for a headache or period pains are unlikely to be affected, but older people with arthritis and heart problems who take the drugs regularly and in large doses are at a higher risk.
Researchers in Switzerland analysed 31 trials involving 116,429 patients to estimate the cardiovascular risks of all non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDS) against placebos. Previous research has suggested an increased risk of cardiovascular problems linked with the drugs.
They found that ibuprofen increased the risk of stroke threefold, while diclofenac and etoricoxib had four times the risk of causing death from heart attack or stroke. Naproxen was the least harmful among the seven drugs analysed. The study is published in the British Medical Journal.
What about aspirin?
Aspirin, the most widely used non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID), was not included in the study by the researchers in Switzerland because there were no large-scale trials in which it was tested.
Research shows that at low doses it protects the heart, but the leader of the study, Professor Peter Juni, of the University of Bern, said at the large doses necessary to have a significant painkilling effect – more than one gram a day – it was likely to increase the risk of heart attack and stroke in the same way as other NSAIDs.
Aspirin also carries a risk of gastric bleeding, the most common reason why it is discontinued in the treatment of chronic pain.
