Women going through the menopause may take a bisphosphonate to ward off osteoporosis and bone fracture – but researchers have discovered this week that the drug increases the chances of some fractures.
The drugs, which prevent bone mass loss, increase the risk of ‘atypical’ fractures – these are fractures to the femoral bone, which extends from the hip to the knee, and sub-trochanteric fractures, which occur in the bone below the hip joint.
Researchers reckon that women who take a bisphosphonate regularly for five years or longer increase the risk of an atypical fracture by 2.7 times compared to those who take the drug occasionally, or for less than a hundred days.
At the very least, say researchers from St Michael’s Hospital in Toronto, doctors should consider putting the bisphosphonate patient on an occasional break from the drug.
(Source: Journal of the American Medical Association, 2011; 305: 783-9).
