3 arthritis pain drugs prove equally safe for heart

NEW ORLEANS -- A new study gives some reassurance to arthritis sufferers who want pain relief but are worried about side effects.

It finds Celebrex, a drug similar to ones withdrawn 12 years ago for safety reasons, is no riskier for the heart than some other prescription pain pills that are much tougher on the stomach.

"We do not want patients to suffer with pain, and we need to know what is safe to give them," said Dr. Steven Nissen, the Cleveland Clinic's heart chief, who led the study. Fear Celebrex would be worse than alternatives proved unfounded, and "on almost every endpoint, it actually comes out the best."

Some other doctors were less confident, partly because follow-up information was missing on one-fourth of the participants, and many others stopped taking their assigned drug.

Still, several independent experts said the main results are believable.

"I find this reassuring," said Dr. Brian Strom, a drug safety expert and chancellor at Rutgers University in Newark. No new side effects emerged, and Celebrex "seemed safer that way."

Results were discussed Sunday at an American Heart Association conference and published by the New England Journal of Medicine.

Many of the 52 million Americans with arthritis need long-term pain medicines and higher doses than over-the-counter ones, but some can cause serious stomach trouble.