FRIDAY, Dec. 2 (HealthDay News) -- COX-2 inhibitors aren't any less harmful to the stomach lining than conventional nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), according to a study published in the Dec. 3 issue of the British Medical Journal.
Julia Hippisley-Cox, M.D., of the University of Nottingham, England, and colleagues studied 9,407 patients with a first-ever diagnosis of a stomach ulcer or bleed and 88,867 controls. In the study group, 45% had been prescribed an NSAID in the previous three years and 10% had been prescribed a COX-2 inhibitor. In the control group, 33% had been prescribed an NSAID and 5.6% had been prescribed a COX-2 inhibitor.
The researchers found that NSAIDs and COX-2 inhibitors increased the risk of adverse gastrointestinal events. Risks were reduced after adjusting for other factors, but the odds ratios remained significantly increased for naproxen (2.12), diclofenac (1.96) and rofecoxib (1.56), but not for current use of celecoxib (1.11). "We found clinically important interactions with current use of ulcer-healing drugs that removed the increased risks for adverse gastrointestinal events for all groups of NSAIDs except diclofenac, which still had an increased odds ratio (1.49)," the authors write.
"Overall we found no strong evidence of enhanced gastrointestinal safety with any of the new cyclo-oxygenase-2 inhibitors compared with non-selective NSAIDs," the authors conclude.
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