3 arthritis pain drugs prove equally safe for the heart

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A new study gives some reassurance to arthritis sufferers who want pain relief but are worried about side effects.

Some other doctors were less confident, partly because follow-up information was missing on one-fourth of the participants, and many others stopped taking their assigned drug.

The study tested daily use of Celebrex versus prescription-strength ibuprofen or naproxen in 24,000 arthritis patients with heart disease or a risk factor for it such as diabetes.

The results only apply to these drugs and amounts — not to occasional use of lower, over-the-counter doses (ibuprofen is sold as Motrin, Advil and other brands; naproxen is sold as Naprosyn and Aleve), or to other painkillers such as Tylenol.

After more than two years in the study, about 2 percent of participants had suffered a heart attack, stroke, heart-related death or other heart problem regardless of what drug they were taking.

The study was not designed to compare the drugs for pain relief, but naproxen showed a small advantage on one measure of that over Celebrex.

The study was aimed at people at high heart risk, yet only 20 percent of participants already had heart disease; the rest just had risk factors.

[...] people on ibuprofen or naproxen had more room to escalate their doses than those on Celebrex did because that drug's label limits it to what is considered safe now.