Acid reflux pills could cause more problems Play Video

Posted: Jul 1, 2009 12:17 PM
Updated: Jul 1, 2009 5:45 PM


Last year, Americans received more than one hundred million  prescriptions last year for acid reflux drugs such as Prevacid or Prilosec - medications in a class called proton pump inhibitors.  These popular drugs outsold every other class of medication except cholesterol drugs and antipsychotics.  But new evidence finds the acid reflux pills may be creating dependency  in patients who use them. 

Researchers in Denmark tested Prilosec in healthy volunteers who had never experienced acid reflux problems.  Results revealed that forty percent of participants started experiencing symptoms such as heartburn, chest pain, and acid reflux after they stopped the drug.  The medications work by blocking acid pumps in stomach cells, but researchers say that ceasing the drugs may trigger a rebound effect that creates more acid. 

They suggest this is why one third of patients continue to fill their prescriptions even after they have theoretically complete treatment.  While the drugs overall have an excellent safety record, studies have linked long-term use of proton pump inhibitors to an increased risk for fractures.

Source: published in Gastroenterology 

Rating: 0.0 (0 votes)
| More
    Bookmark and Share
  • Avatar for Sandra
    Neutral + − !
    Sandra at Jul 2nd 2009 6:28 PM

    Was any information offered to patients that want to stop this medication?  Which doctor/source did you use for this infomation?  Thanks for your help...

Not registered? Enter your information. You will be sent a confirmation email.


Please keep your comments relevant. Inflamatory or offensive comments will be removed. Email addresses are NEVER displayed, but they are required to confirm your comments.

New users will be sent an email to confirm their comments. If you choose to create an account, a subsequent email will be sent with a password to login. To leave another comment, just use that password.

To create a link, simply type the URL (including http://) or email address and it will automatically be made a link. Paragraph and line spacing is automatically maintained, so there is no need to use <p> or <br /> tags. All other HTML tags are removed, including <img>.

Featured Videos

Poll Now Found.

Most Popular