The use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) - including ibuprofen and other common painkillers - does not increase the risk of heart disease and cardiovascular-related events among the elderly, according to study published in the most recent issue of the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology.
The results of the study challenge previous research suggesting that older patients who routinely take NSAIDs have a higher risk of having a heart attack or experiencing early death, Bloomberg Businessweek reports.
For the study, which was funded by the Department of Veterans' Affairs, lead investigator Arduino Mangoni and his colleagues analyzed the hospital admission and prescription records of approximately 320,000 Australian patients, looking specifically at those who were prescribed anti-inflammatory drugs.
"Unlike previous studies we did not observe an increased risk of heart disease after considering NSAIDs as a whole, their sub-classes, and several individual drugs," said Mangoni, who is now a professor with the University of Aberdeen in Scotland.
"In fact, our study has demonstrated that the use of NSAIDs has overall a neutral effect on the risk of heart disease in a large elderly population with multiple co-existing medical conditions," he added.
Furthermore, the researchers found that the use of NSAIDs was associated with a reduction in all-cause mortality, although they could only speculate as to why.
