美国国家公共电台 NPR Safety Of Painkiller Celebrex Affirmed In New Study

Safety Of Painkiller¹ Celebrex Affirmed In New Study

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Today In Your Health - trying to prevent peanut allergies³. We'll get to that in a moment. But first, some news this morning about the safety of prescription⁴ painkilling⁵ drugs that are used by millions of people. NPR health correspondent Rob Stein joins us with the details. Hey, Rob.

ROB STEIN, BYLINE⁶: Dave

GREENE: So what is this new research, and how worried should we be?

STEIN: So we're talking about three drugs here, and they were examined as part of a large study that was released late yesterday. Now, the focus of the study was a drug known as celecoxib. Now, some people might recognize the brand name that was originally used to sell this drug - Celebrex.

GREENE: Painkiller, right?

STEIN: It's a painkiller. It's a prescription painkiller. And people have been worried about this drug for more than a decade. And the reason is it's very similar to another drug known as Vioxx.

GREENE: Which made a lot of news.

STEIN: Yeah. That was a huge, blockbuster painkiller that came in the market. And then it was pulled off the market because doctors discovered it could sharply increase the risk for heart attacks and strokes. So ever since then, doctors have been worried about Celebrex. Is it another Vioxx or not? So the FDA let the drug stay on the market but only with the condition that researchers study it to determine how safe it might be.

GREENE: OK, so the FDA wanted Celebrex to be studied. Is that the news that we got yesterday - the study's done?

STEIN: Yeah, absolutely. They finally have the results. And this study involved more than 24,000 arthritis⁷ patients and took more than a decade to complete.

GREENE: Wow.

STEIN: One-third of the patients took Celebrex every day for at least more than a year. And the researchers compared them to patients who were either taking prescription doses of ibuprofen - you know, people might recognize that as Advil or Motrin - or prescription doses of another drug known as naproxen, which people might recognize as Aleve.

GREENE: Over the counter, yeah.

STEIN: Right. And when they took a look at it after analyzing⁸ all the data, they realized that, no, Celebrex is no Vioxx. It doesn't have the sharply increased risk for heart attacks and strokes that Vioxx does. Now, that doesn't mean it's completely safe. All of these drugs do have some risk for increasing the chances of having a heart attack and stroke. It just looks like Celebrex is no worse than these other drugs.

GREENE: OK, so I ask you how worried we should be. It sounds like we shouldn't be that worried, that Celebrex is safe. Is that what they're saying?

STEIN: Well, they're saying it's not as dangerous as we feared it might be. And all these drugs do carry some risks. And when they look further at some of the other side effects that are associated with these drugs, they continue to find some differences. For example, they found that Celebrex was less likely to cause complications to the stomach, like bleeding or ulcers⁹ in the digestive system that - compared to ibuprofen or compared to naproxen.

And they also found that ibuprofen was more likely to cause kidney problems that could become kind of serious in some cases, like, even kidney failure or the need for kidney dialysis. And there was also a hint - and I really have to emphasize a hint - that naproxen and ibuprofen may be a little bit more likely to cause heart problems than Celebrex and even a slighter hint that Celebrex may be less likely to cause overall death compared to naproxen.

Now, it's really important to note that these were just really hints, and they weren't statistically¹⁰ significant or were only borderline statistically significant. So they're really just sort of food for thought that researchers follow up to see whether or not they're real or not.

GREENE: So, Rob, I mean, the take-home here, it's sounding like, is if you're taking any of these painkillers¹¹, just some questions out there. Talk to your doctor. Be careful.

STEIN: Absolutely, talk to your doctor. And it's important to note that this study was not perfect. They did have some flaws. There were some questions about the low dose of Celebrex that was used, and a lot of patients dropped out, which always raises questions about the reliability¹². But the take-home message - advice I'm hearing from experts is, if you have to take these drugs, take them for the shortest period of time at the lowest dose, and talk to your doctor first to try and decide which drug to take.

GREENE: And we're talking about all of them here - the naproxen, the ibuprofen and the Celebrex.

STEIN: All of them. All of them have some risks.

GREENE: OK. That's NPR health correspondent Rob Stein. Rob, thanks.

STEIN: Sure. Nice to be here.

1 painkiller   

n.止痛药

参考例句：

• I shall persuade him to take the painkiller.我将说服他把药吃下去。
• The painkiller only provides him a short respite from his pain.止痛药仅仅让他在疼痛中有短暂的疏解。

2 browser   

n.浏览者

参考例句：

• View edits in a web browser.在浏览器中看编辑的效果。
• I think my browser has a list of shareware links.我想在浏览器中会有一系列的共享软件链接。

3 allergies   

n.[医]过敏症；[口]厌恶，反感；（对食物、花粉、虫咬等的）过敏症( allergy的名词复数 )；变态反应，变应性

参考例句：

• Food allergies can result in an enormous variety of different symptoms. 食物过敏会引发很多不同的症状。 来自辞典例句
• Let us, however, examine one of the most common allergies; hayfever. 现在让我们来看看最常见的变态反应的一种--枯草热。 来自辞典例句

4 prescription   

n.处方，开药；指示，规定

参考例句：

• The physician made a prescription against sea- sickness for him.医生给他开了个治晕船的药方。
• The drug is available on prescription only.这种药只能凭处方购买。

5 painkilling   

[医]止痛的

参考例句：

• Painkilling drugs were not enough to relieve her suffering. 止痛药不能缓解她的痛苦。 来自互联网
• The effect of the painkilling drug didn't wear off for several hours. 止痛药的药效好几个锺头之仍未消失。 来自互联网

6 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

7 arthritis   

n.关节炎

参考例句：

• Rheumatoid arthritis has also been linked with the virus.风湿性关节炎也与这种病毒有关。
• He spent three months in the hospital with acute rheumatic arthritis.他患急性风湿性关节炎，在医院住了三个月。

8 analyzing   

v.分析；分析( analyze的现在分词 )；分解；解释；对…进行心理分析n.分析

参考例句：

• Analyzing the date of some socialist countries presents even greater problem s. 分析某些社会主义国家的统计数据，暴露出的问题甚至更大。 来自辞典例句
• He undoubtedly was not far off the mark in analyzing its predictions. 当然，他对其预测所作的分析倒也八九不离十。 来自辞典例句

9 ulcers   

n.溃疡( ulcer的名词复数 )；腐烂物；道德败坏；腐败

参考例句：

• Detachment of the dead cells produces erosions and ulcers. 死亡细胞的脱落，产生糜烂和溃疡。 来自辞典例句
• 75% of postbulbar ulcers occur proximal to the duodenal papilla. 75％的球后溃疡发生在十二指肠乳头近侧。 来自辞典例句

10 statistically   

ad.根据统计数据来看，从统计学的观点来看

参考例句：

• The sample of building permits is larger and therefore, statistically satisfying. 建筑许可数的样本比较大，所以统计数据更令人满意。
• The results of each test would have to be statistically independent. 每次试验的结果在统计上必须是独立的。

11 painkillers   

n.止痛药( painkiller的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The doctor gave him some painkillers to ease the pain. 医生给了他一些止疼片以减缓疼痛。 来自辞典例句
• The primary painkillers - opiates, like OxyContin - are widely feared, misunderstood and underused. 人们对主要的镇痛药——如鸦片剂奥施康定——存在广泛的恐惧、误解，因此没有充分利用。 来自时文部分

12 reliability   

n.可靠性，确实性

参考例句：

• We mustn't presume too much upon the reliability of such sources.我们不应过分指望这类消息来源的可靠性。
• I can assure you of the reliability of the information.我向你保证这消息可靠。