Clinical Trends for May 2017

Ryan Syrek

Disclosures

May 26, 2017

Each week, we identify one top search term, speculate as to what caused its popularity, and provide an infographic on a related condition. If you have thoughts about what's trending and why, feel free to share them with us on Twitter or Facebook!

Clinical Trend of the Week (May 20-26): NSAIDs

Some troubling news about a popular class of drugs resulted in this week's top search term. According to a new patient-level meta-analysis, the use of all nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) is associated with an increased risk of myocardial infarction. This was even true for naproxen, which has been considered one of the safest drugs in this class. The study examined 61,460 cases of MI and 385,303 controls and found that the increase in risk for MI among current NSAID users was 20% to 50%, compared with those not using the drugs. The onset of MI risk was rapid in the first week of NSAID use. However, experts advise caution in interpreting the results, as cofounding factors may not have been completely considered, and the fact that MI risk did not continue to increase after 30 days of use in all cases was a confusing finding. The potential significance of this study combined with the popularity of NSAIDs resulted in a dramatic increase in searches for this term.

For more information on MI, read here.

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