Popular Arthritis Pain Medications Carry Risk of Heart Disease

The results of two review studies published earlier this week in the web-based Early Release edition of the Journal ofthe American Medical Association (JAMA) have questioned the safety of a widely-prescribed class of arthritis pain medications known as cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) inhibitors and, in some cases, suggesting that the use of COX-2 agents may actually double the patients risk of a significant cardiovascular event. A third study, which appeared in the journal Circulation, specifically studied the drug celecoxib (Celebrex(TM)).

COX-2 inhibitors have been widely touted as being more selective in their actions and thus decreasing the severity of abdominal pain, gastrointestinal bleeding, or other side effects that had been reported with other anti-inflammatory pain medications (all drugs in this class, which includes aspirin, are generally known as Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs or NSAIDS). In the , COX-2 inhibitors are available by prescription only.In the Circulation report, Scott Solomon and colleagues from the Brigham & Women's Hospital in Boston conducted a meta review (retrospective review of data accumulated by other researchers) and found that celecoxib was associated with an increased risk (reported as Hazard Ratio [HR] with 1.0 being considered as "baseline") of cardiovascular events in what appeared to be a dose-related manner (400mg once daily = 1.3 HR; 200mg twice daily = 2.6 HR; 400mg twice daily = 3.4 HR).