Diabetes Medication: More Harm than Good?

(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- A medication for diabetics may do more harm than good. Doctors are concerned rosiglitazone may increase older patients’ risk of death and heart failure.

A black box warning was recently added to two drugs, rosiglitazone and pioglitazone hydrochloride, cautioning patients with heart failure against using them. Recent studies have shown the risks linked to rosiglitazone are even greater than those associated with pioglitazone.

Researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School looked at 28,361 patients over age 65 that started taking either medication between 2000 and 2005. After an average of 380 days taking pioglitazone and 369 taking rosiglitazone, 1,860 patients died. Rosiglitazone was found to be associated with a 15 percent higher rate of death and 13 percent increased risk of heart failure compared to those taking pioglitazone. The two groups had no difference in their risk of heart attack or stroke.

“Although previous studies have indicated that the increased risk with rosiglitazone use resides predominantly in cardiovascular outcomes, the present study suggests that differences in all-cause mortality [death] risk may be even more important to consider in elderly patients,” study authors wrote.

SOURCE: Archives of Internal Medicine, 2008;168[21]:2368-2375

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