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Help My Hurt

Article: Taking More Than One Anti-inflammatory Drug May Lead To Complications

by Marijke Durning, RN on February 3rd, 2008

Science Daily has published this article, Taking More Than One Anti-inflammatory Drug May Lead To Complications. It’s an interesting look at people who take two such medications at the same time and some of the reasons they may be doing so.

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Technorati Tags: anti-inflammatories

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Jean
Feb 3, 2008 at 8:49 pm

Marijke, I think one of the gals at my retreat would be helped reading this. Wish she had an e-mail, I’d mail it to her.
Michele
Feb 4, 2008 at 2:12 am

As a chronic pain sufferer, due to debilitating osteoarthritis, I would say that it is both a lack of education and a lack of adequate pain control that causes the overuse of NSAID’s. I am on Celebrex and have been for eight years. I am lucky enough have a great GP who understands that there are times when I need a boost in my pain relief due to life, work or just weather changes. He gives me Vicodan which I use very sparingly. I am very satisfied with my pain control.
I do believe that some patients think that all their pain should be controlled. It’s not realistic to expect that. Once you suffer chronic pain you usually have to find a way to function with some level of pain. You should keep as busy as you can and find life fulfilling activities that you can. Just because you can’t play your favorite sport is not the end of life. It is a window of opportunity to find a new exciting part of life.
Carolyn
Feb 4, 2008 at 7:10 am

This article really illustrates why it’s important to tell your doctor about ALL medications that you take.

I do think it’s difficult to say whether taking 2 or more NSAIDS concurrently causes a person to have worse health, or whether a person is not well pain-managed and thus simply turns to OTCs to make up the difference.

However, it has been shown that frequent use of pain-relievers can cause rebound headaches, so it should be interesting to see the results of the ongoing studies of cause and effect for other health issues as well.

Link to information about rebound headaches:
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/rebound-headaches/DS00613
Marijke Durning, RN
Feb 4, 2008 at 11:58 am

Hi Jean, too bad your friend doesn’t have email. Perhaps there may be another way to get in touch with her at one point.

Michele, I think you make an excellent point. There’s a difference between having your pain completely under control and managing. I am afraid I do fall under the first group sometimes. I just get into these days when I don’t want any pain and I dont always act in the smartest manner. You are right though and this is not realistic.

Carolyn, thank you for bringing up the topic of rebound headaches. That is a very serious issue for many people and thanks for providing the link. I’ll have to do a post on rebound headaches soon.