« Allergy season at its worst in the US | Home | Cancer drug form Novartis approved for pancreatic tumor treatment »

Biphosphonates may trigger atypical fractures: Study

By jeremyc | June 14, 2011

While there are many drugs that are prescribed for osteoporosis a recent research suggests that many of these make the recipients more vulnerable to fractures. Known as bisphosphonates, these drugs cause the people who use them to have what is known as atypical fractures or unusual.

The research that was conducted by the Swedish Research Council tested 12, 777 women over the age of 55 and using drugs for osteoporosis were tested. Out of all these women, 59 were found to be suffering from atypical fractures.

But just as there is a risk of such unusual fractures occurring, the good news seems to be that the bisphosphonates cure about 50-60 cases of fractures caused due to osteoporosis for every one case of unusual fracture. Thus the doctors across the world agree that the risk factor about consuming bisphosphonates is quite low and that there is no need to stop the continuation of the medicine whatsoever.

In terms of statistics, this translates into five cases of unusual fracture occurring for patient -years of 10,000. Another important statistic that emerged through this research was that the longer a person took the drug, the more increased were the chances of getting unusual fractures. At the same time, there was a 70% drop of risks for every year that the patient did not consume the drug.

Another important fact mentioned by Dr. Per Aspenberg, who led this research, is that if patients have taken the drug for five years then they can very well go off the drug as its effects will definitely last for another five years. This being the case, the patients who have consumed bisphosphonates for five years at a stretch but have stopped its consumption afterwards can successfully reduce their chances of getting unusual fractures.

Robert R. Recker however refuses to accept the conclusion of the research. He has pointed out that in most of the cases of atypical fractures mentioned in the study the women who had suffered from fractures had some precedence of bone problems. That being the case, he says it cannot be proved whether bisphosphonates actually caused the fractures or they were just the trigger that worsened the pre-existing condition.

With such dividing opinions it can be safely assumed that there is little chance of discontinuation of bisphosphonates in near future. In fact, more conclusive studies need to be conducted in order to confirm the adverse effects of the drug.

The findings of the study were published in an edition of the New England Journal of Medicine.

Topics: | Osteoporosis |

Comments are closed.