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(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Five years may be long enough for some women taking alendronate (Fosamax) to treat osteoporosis.
According to a new study out of the University of California, San Francisco, women who stopped taking the medication after five years retained many of the positive effects five years later. What's more, they weren't any more likely to suffer a nonvertebral fracture than women who continued taking the medication.
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All of the women were initially enrolled in a clinical trial on the drug and took either five milligrams or 10 milligrams per day. After five years, the women were randomly assigned to keep taking the drug or to begin taking a placebo pill for comparison purposes.
Women who stopped the medication did experience some decline in bone mineral density (BMD), but BMD was still at or higher than that which had been measured at the beginning of the original study. The same was true for bone marker levels, another sign of bone health.
Does this mean all women on the drug should go off of it after five years? Not necessarily, write the authors. Although no difference was seen between the two groups in nonvertebral fractures, women who remained on the drug did have a significantly lower risk of a fracture of the vertebra.
The authors conclude, "For many women, discontinuation of alendronate after five years for up to five more years does not significantly increase fracture risk, but women at high risk of clinical vertebral fractures, such as those with vertebral fracture or very low BMD, may benefit by continuing beyond five years."
In an accompanying editorial, Cathleen S. Colon-Emeric, M.D., M.H.Sc., of Duke University Medical Center in Durham, N.C., calls on doctors to take these findings into account when prescribing the medication for their patients, noting "physicians may be able to begin telling women when they have had enough of a good thing."
This article was reported by Ivanhoe.com, who offers Medical Alerts by e-mail every day of the week. To subscribe, go to: http://www.ivanhoe.com/newsalert/.
SOURCE: The Journal of the American Medical Association, 2006;296:2927-2938, 2968-2969
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