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(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- New research suggests an association between thiazolidinediones -- a type of drug introduced in the 1990s to treat type 2 diabetes -- and bone fracture.
Ian Douglas of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and colleagues searched the UK General Practice Research Database of clinical records from over 6 million patients registered at 400 general practice surgeries in the United Kingdom. They identified 1,819 individuals aged 40 years or older who had a recorded bone fracture and who had been prescribed a thiazolidinedione at least once, and conducted a self-controlled case-series study. This study compares how often an event (in this case bone fracture) occurs in a population of people during the period when they are taking a particular medication (in this case a thiazolidinedione drug) against the period when they are not taking that medication.
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Adjusting for age, the researchers found that in the group of people studied, nearly one and half times more fractures occurred when people were taking thiazolidinediones than when they were not taking these drugs. The increased risk of fracture was observed in both men and women and applied to a wide range of fracture sites on the body. The study also found that the risk of fracture increased as the duration of treatment with the drug increased.
The researchers acknowledge that, as with any study, there could be sources of bias because this study is observational and not a randomised trial. Nevertheless, the findings are consistent with findings from recent trials that suggested a link between thiazolidinediones and bone fracture.
The researchers conclude the results should be taken into consideration in the wider debate surrounding the possible risks and benefits of treatment with thiazolidinediones.
SOURCE: PLoS Medicine, September 28, 2009
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