Pain Medication and Heart Attacks

The pain medication Vioxx was taken off of the market because it increased the likelihood of heart attacks. Vioxx was an anti-inflammatory drug known as a cox-2 inhibitor. It is named for the enzyme it suppresses. The cox-2 inhibitors were popular because they offer effective pain relief without creating the problems with GI irritation caused by other types of pain reliever.  Celecoxib (sold under the brand name Celebrex), which is also a cox-2 inhibitor, also increases the risk for a heart attack. Research appearing in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine (March 3, 2006) showed that celecoxib can increase the risk of a heart attack by two fold.