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American Morning
Americans Who Take Expensive Prescription Painkillers Might Not Need Them
Aired June 05, 2002 - 08:39 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: In some interesting developments this morning, millions of Americans take expensive prescription painkillers like Celebrex and Vioxx, might not need them after all. There is a new survey by a health insurer that says Aspirin and Ibuprofen can be just as effective, and they are certainly a lot cheaper.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta this morning with our "House Call" to figure it all out for us.
Sanjay, good morning.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Bill.
Yes, you're absolutely right. These medications, also called Cox II inhibitors. That's sort of the general name for them. Vioxx and Celebrex are the names that we know them better by, and we probably would know them, because they're a $6 billion a year industry. Celebrex alone is the 10th most popular drug that we take, and they're just like Ibuprofen, they're just like Naprocin, Motrin, the more common medications that we've heard of, and they've been sort of touted as having lower g.i. effects and being stronger.
No doubt consumers, as well as doctors, have just been bombarded with all sorts of information regarding these medications. You can read the headlines, you'll see them there. All sorts of headlines about these medications, and certainly people have heard a lot about them.
The problem, as you already pointed out, though, absolutely correctly, these medications now according to a British medical journal, according to an independent survey by a health care industry official says that these medications may, in fact, not be any more effective than Naprocin or Motrin. Incidentally, they're much more expensive. And also, they may not have the same stomach sort of beneficial effects we've heard so much about. In fact, the ulcer complication, the things you worry about with these medications may occur in the same numbers with these other medications just, later on. So a couple of caveats regarding these very popular medications.
HEMMER: Oftentimes, Sanjay, and you know this as well as anybody, oftentimes we hear the results and patients and viewers don't know what to think. If the researchers disagree, how do the patients respond? GUPTA: I think that's an excellent point. And, Bill, I'm just as guilty of that at anybody. I've certainly prescribed these medications as well. I think the best thing to sort of keep in mind, is that you should definitely talk to your doctor about it. There will be new information that comes out all the time. But the biggest point, I think, is one that just because it's a newer medication, just because you're being bombarded with glitzy ads, doesn't always make it a better medication. If the old medication is working, that probably is going to be just fine for you.
HEMMER: Let's talk about another topic here in New York in fact, Westchester County. They're passing out pills, potassium iodine...
GUPTA: Right.
HEMMER: ... to people who live within ten miles of the nuclear reactor plant, a nuclear facility here. They say they're doing this right now just in case. From a medical perspective, what's our read on this?
GUPTA: I'll tell you, what we know about these sort of things is from past history such as Chernobyl. With Chernobyl, we learned that the rates of thyroid cancer went up dramatically after a nuclear fallout, after this leak of radioactive material. In fact, 3,000 unexpected cases of thyroid cancer. Based on that, they've also realized that potassium iodine, which is just really a salt, if that's taken ahead of time, six to 12 hours ahead of time, that can potentially and probably prevent thyroid cancer, so that's sort of the thinking behind that; 140,000 people live within this 10-mile radius. They have 340,000 pills that they're making available right now.
HEMMER: That's preventing it. We only have a short time ahead, Sanjay. We're going to jump ahead here. You talk about thyroid cancer. Can this medication prevent other types of cancer, as well?
GUPTA: No, an important point. This medication really just prevents thyroid cancer. It's actually, taken up preferentially by the thyroid glands. And sort of think of it like this, once that medication is taken up by the thyroid glands, it's like filling a parking space with a car, so no other cars can get in there. The other cars being these radioactive particles, so it works pretty well against preventing thyroid cancer, not a substitute for evacuation, and will not prevent other sorts of cancers, but for this.
HEMMER: Talk about your preventive medication. Sanjay, thanks, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, with our "House Call" this morning.
GUPTA: Thanks.
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