It was quite an alarming series of headlines last week as news broke of a large scale analysis of the risks associated with the use of common over the counter anti-inflammatory medications. “Common painkillers linked to heart disease” reported The Australian, along with “The findings confirm that drugs such as Nurofen and Voltaren can significantly increase the risk of heart attack and stroke.”

Previous studies have examined these medications mostly on an individual basis, but this study tried to compare their relative risks, in short it asked the question “which NSAID is safest for patients with high cardiovascular risk?”

The study compared the results of 32 previous studies, in which the effects on 116,429 patients were analysed. Included in the study were: naproxen (Naprosyn), ibuprofen (Nurofen), diclofenac (Voltaren), celecoxib (Celebrex), rofecoxib (Vioxx), lumiracoxib (Prexige) and etoricoxib (Arcoxia).

Its important to note that the number of cardiovascular events in the trials was low. Compared with placebo, these were the results:

• rofecoxib (Vioxx) and lumiracoxib were associated with twice the risk of heart attack, compared with placebo
• ibuprofen (Nurofen) was associated with more than three times the risk of stroke.
• Etoricoxib and diclofenac (Voltaren) were both associated with roughly four times the risk of cardiovascular death, the highest risk.
• Naproxen (Naprosyn) was least harmful in terms of cardiovascular safety.

I’m not trying to alarm anyone, just putting the information out there. This is just something you should consider if you already have heart disease or risk factors for cardiovascular conditions, and discuss with your GP if you have any concerns.