News
Elderly people face greater risk of heart failure from painkillers
London: The common painkiller cannot be regarded as a harmless drug if the findings of a recent research are to be believed.
A team of medical researchers from Madrid found that non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) could raise the risk of heart failure among the elderly by more than thirty percent. Such drugs include the common over-the-counter drugs like ibuprofen, naproxen, diclofenac, ketoprofen, meloxicam, indomethacin and proxicam.
Patients previously diagnosed with the problem, people with a history of specialists consultations and treatment, overweight people and smokers are particularly at risk, if they are past 60 years of age.
The Spanish team commenced their research on January 1, 1997. They studied the health progress and analyzed the medical records of elderly 1,400 Britons who had been hospitalized for the first time around that time. The subjects were aged between 60 and 84. Their health progress was compared with that of 5,000 healthy people (the control group).
At commencement of the study, about 14 percent of patients were already taking NSAIDs before their first hospitalization whereas the healthy group had 10 percent. The drug indomethacin was linked to the highest incidence of hospitalization for heart failure compared to those who did not take the drug. Indomethacin raised the risk by nearly three times the risk from lesser NSAIDs like diclofenac. Even among patients who had no history of heart failure, NSAIDs were found to have triggered the risk of hospitalization for hearty failure.
Lead researcher Dr Consuelo Huerta summarized saying the study indicated that one out of every 1,000 elderly person taking painkillers could see one extra first hospital admission for heart failure. The risk may appear to be small but it's not to be ignored, especially because most people past 60 would very likely suffer from diseases like hypertension, diabetes, kidney failure. For the elderly population, even a slightly raised risk would easily result into a far greater disease burden than they can cope with.
Huerta said his team's findings could be compared with previous research that said NSAIDs made heart failure symptoms more severe.
The team worked for Madrid's Centro Espanol de Investigacion Farmacoepidemiologica. They had their report published in the online journal 'Heart'.