GEORGE TRIADAFILOPOULOS, MD: One of the unfortunate issues with these drugs is that sometimes you may have absolutely no warning sign. Up to 80 percent, in one of our studies; 80 percent of people who ended up actually being admitted to the hospital and suffering major gastrointestinal complications had no warning sign that would have alerted their physicians to the possibility that they would get into trouble down the line.
ANNOUNCER: Frequently people put themselves at risk by taking more than the recommended dose of these medicines
BYRON CRYER, MD: Overusage of NSAIDs is a huge part of the problem and overusage manifests itself in a number of ways. For example, patients may take a greater number of capsules or tablets than indicated on the label or the prescription. Or they may take their dose at a time just before they're supposed to take it. Or they may take a greater number of doses per day. Or they may take various forms of NSAIDs in combination.
ANNOUNCER: Too often people are combining more than one NSAID medication without knowing it.
GEORGE TRIADAFILOPOULOS, MD: A lot of them are available over-the-counter. Therefore, patients may pick them up from the pharmacy without a prescription, use them as they wish, and sometimes, patients have already a prescription NSAID, given to them by their doctor, and then they add an additional one.
BYRON CRYER, MD: Physicians see this in their practice every day. About a third of the patients who are receiving a prescription for an NSAID are also concurrently taking another form of NSAID. Typically the physician is unaware of this combination and the patient is unaware of this problem.
ANNOUNCER: Avoiding trouble begins with being a smart consumer.
