Which NSAID has best gastrointestinal safety in Arthritis- Check it out

NSAIDs are often used to treat pain and joint inflammation in people with arthritis, but they can cause damage to the intestinal tract including ulcers and bleed from the stomach or intestine.In a recent study Prof. Neville Yeomans, of the University of Melbourne, in Australia and associates evaluated GI safety of celecoxib compared with 2 nonselective (ns) NSAIDs, as a secondary objective of a large trial examining multiorgan safety. They found that celecoxib co-prescribed with esomeprazole had better overall gastrointestinal safety than ibuprofen or naproxen.The study appears in Journal of Alimentary Pharmacology & Therapeutics.

The study included 24,000 arthritis patients who were treated with one of the more safer medicines NSAIDs--celecoxib, naproxen, or ibuprofen--in addition to esomeprazole. Over an average follow-up of nearly 2 years on treatment, serious gastrointestinal tract problems occurred in approximately 3 per 1000 patients on celecoxib and approximately 7 per 1000 on ibuprofen or naproxen.

The researchers concluded that Arthritis patients taking NSAIDs plus esomeprazole have infrequent clinically significant gastrointestinal events. Co‐prescribed with esomeprazole, celecoxib has better overall GI safety than ibuprofen or naproxen at these doses, despite treatment with low‐dose aspirin or corticosteroids.

"Another reassuring finding was that patients who also needed to take aspirin (for preventing heart attacks and strokes) had only slightly more gastrointestinal problems than those who took only the arthritis medications," said lead author Prof. Neville Yeomans, of the University of Melbourne, in Australia.