NSAIDs, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs such as ibuprofen, as well as COX-2 inhibitors, are suggested to put patients at increased risk of cardiovascular events when compared to placebo results. Naproxen, researchers note, seems to be the least potentially harmful drug of those analyzed in the study. The researchers caution that more studies are needed, but that doctors should take cardiovascular risk into account when prescribing painkillers.
Read the Med Page Today article or the Reuters article for more detailed information. Talk to Dr. Cohen at his San Francisco Financial District office about safer alternatives to painkillers.