Sudhakar Jha
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Written By: Sudhakar Jha | Published : September 7, 2018 2:03 PM IST
The new study found that there was increased risk of cardiac death in those people taking diclofenac than other non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. © Shutterstock
There are a lot of widely used non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID) that does work on the symptoms of inflammation and give relief, but ever since 2004, when one of the NSAID was banned, researchers have been looking for other drugs in the same class including aspirin, ibuprofen (Advil), and naproxen (Aleve) that need to be banned due to their increased cardiovascular risks. These risks were overlooked or weren t checked back when the safety studies were done on them but are causing major problems now.
A team of researchers from Denmark has found that people who are having diclofenac, one of the most commonly used anti-inflammatory drugs and available over the counter without any prescription, are a higher risk of facing significantly more serious adverse events than those taking other NSAIDs or paracetamol.
In our study, we found that diclofenac initiators were at increased risk of major adverse cardiovascular events both compared with no NSAID initiation, initiation of paracetamol as an analgesic alternative to NSAIDs, as well as initiation of other traditional NSAIDs, the authors wrote in the British Medical Journal.
While NSAID use previously was considered risk-neutral in short treatment periods and low doses, the risks were apparent even within 30 days and also for low doses of diclofenac.
For the study, the authors collected the data from nationwide medical records and prescription registries and zeroed down on the adult patients who did not redeem a prescription for an NSAID for at least one year when they presented to a hospital between 1996 and 2006.
The authors then went on to compare the documented health issues that occurred within 30 days in 1.3 million people who were given a course of diclofenac with those 3.8 million people who were given ibuprofen, 291,490 given naproxen, 764,781 people given paracetamol, and 1.3 million people who were not prescribed any drug.
The analysis revealed that diclofenac users had 50 per cent higher rate of atrial fibrillation or flutter, ischaemic stroke, heart failure, heart attack, or heart-related death in the 30 days following their prescription compared to those who did not have NSAIDs. Further, the diclofenac users risks were 20 per cent higher than those of paracetamol or ibuprofen users and 30 per cent higher than naproxen users.
It was also found that diclofenac users were 2.5 times more likely to experience stomach and intestines bleeding than ibuprofen or paracetamol initiators, and 4.5 times more likely than non-initiators.
