BMJ  2008;336:117 (19 January), doi:10.1136/bmj.39461.527650.4E

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US drugs regulator issues severe pain alert on bisphosphonates

Jeanne Lenzer

1 New York

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Bisphosphonate drugs, which are used to reduce bone fractures in patients with osteoporosis, may cause severe and even "incapacitating" musculoskeletal pain, says the US Food and Drug Administration in an alert issued on 7 January.

The pain can occur within days or years after starting treatment, says the agency. Severe musculoskeletal pain is mentioned in the prescribing information for all bisphosphonates, but the agency issued the alert because of "a sizable number of additional reports of severe bone, joint, and/or muscle pain in patients taking a variety of bisphosphonates" since a 2005 report on the problem.

The agency cautions that "the association between bisphosphonates and severe musculoskeletal pain may be overlooked, delaying diagnosis, prolonging pain and/or impairment, and necessitating the use of analgesics."

In the 2005 report of 112 patients who developed pain described as "extreme" and "disabling," the connection to bisphosphonates was not made as doctors attributed the . . . [Full text of this article]


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