NSAID Safety Update

Certain NSAID painkillers associated with increased risk for heart attack and stroke.
Bloomberg News (1/12, Hallam) reports, "Commonly prescribed medicines that ease pain by fighting inflammation have been linked to increased risk heart attack and stroke," according to an analysis published online Jan. 11 in the British Medical Journal.
The CNN (1/11, Landau) "The Chart" blog reported, "Supporting previous research on the subject, a large meta-analysis of 31 studies has found significant risks of cardiovascular events in people who take prescription-strength nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs)." The blog entry noted, "The analysis spanned studies including a total of more than 116,000 patients. Scientists looked at trials that had compared NSAIDs with other NSAIDs or placebo."
According to HealthDay (1/11, Reinberg), "Compared with patients taking placebo, those taking rofecoxib and lumiracoxib had twice the risk of heart attack, and those taking ibuprofen had more than three times the risk of stroke." Interestingly, "the highest risks for cardiac death were associated with etoricoxib and diclofenac, where the risk was around four times greater than for placebo, the researchers found." The least harmful medicine appeared to be naproxen, the study found.