Posted: Apr 28, 08 12:45pm
After my mom's bone density test last fall they put her on Fosamax for osteoporosis. Within a few months she started having severe pain in her back, hips, joints, etc.
Curious if that's happened to any of you while taking Fosamax?
She took herself off of it and has a doc appt coming up to discuss.
The FDA website has an alert (Jan 08) regarding this drug and side effects.
http://www.fda.gov/CDER/drug/InfoSheets/HCP/bisphosphonatesHCP.htm
Sounds about what my mom was going through.
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Information for Healthcare Professionals
Bisphosphonates (marketed as Actonel, Actonel+Ca, Aredia, Boniva, Didronel, Fosamax, Fosamax+D, Reclast, Skelid, and Zometa)
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FDA ALERT [1/7/2008]: FDA is highlighting the possibility of severe and sometimes incapacitating bone, joint, and/or muscle (musculoskeletal) pain in patients taking bisphosphonates. Although severe musculoskeletal pain is included in the prescribing information for all bisphosphonates, the association between bisphosphonates and severe musculoskeletal pain may be overlooked by healthcare professionals, delaying diagnosis, prolonging pain and/or impairment, and necessitating the use of analgesics.
The severe musculoskeletal pain may occur within days, months, or years after starting a bisphosphonate. Some patients have reported complete relief of symptoms after discontinuing the bisphosphonate, whereas others have reported slow or incomplete resolution. The risk factors for and incidence of severe musculoskeletal pain associated with bisphosphonates are unknown.
This severe musculoskeletal pain is in contrast to the acute phase response characterized by fever, chills, bone pain, myalgias, and arthralgias that sometimes accompanies initial administration of intravenous bisphosphonates and may occur with initial exposure to once-weekly or once-monthly doses of oral bisphosphonates. The symptoms related to the acute phase response tend to resolve within several days with continued drug use.
Healthcare professionals should consider whether bisphosphonate use might be responsible for severe musculoskeletal pain in patients who present with these symptoms and consider temporary or permanent discontinuation of the drug.
