Barchester News

Ibuprofen 'may increase heart disease risk'
11/09/2008
But researchers say their overall findings are encouraging about drug safety.

Elderly people who take ibuprofen every day could have an increased risk of suffering a heart attack, according to a new study.

However, the researchers said their study should offer reassurance to patients because they found that there was not a widespread risk of problems associated with the vast majority of drugs they investigated, Reuters reports.

Iboprofen was the only drug in its class – which also includes aspirin – that was found to increase the risk of serious heart disease.

According to the news provider, Dr Daniel Solomon of Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, who was one of the researchers, stated that most non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and other over-the-counter pain relievers were found to be safe.

He continued: "These results should bolster physicians' and patients' confidence."

In a separate study published in the British Medical Journal, scientists have suggested that dementia patients who take antipsychotic drugs are at a significantly increased risk of having a stroke.

They found the risk of stroke associated with antipsychotic medication to be more than twice as great among dementia patients than for people without dementia.

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