• Defective Drug Side Effects

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Researchers have found a huge increase in the rate of bleeding in the brain associated with warfarin an anticoagulant drug.

The researchers from the University of Cincinnati also found that the rate of brain hemorrhages has increased tenfold with the increased use of warfarin according to the study published in January 9''s issue of Neurology .

Warfarin is best known as Coumadin. It is prescribed to thin the blood and prevent clots and ischemic strokes. But the drug is linked with another kind of stroke called intracerebral brain hemorrhage, which is a ruptured brain blood vessel.

“Warfarin use increased during the 1990s, because it was proven to be effective in preventing ischemic strokes among people who have an abnormal heart rhythm called atrial fibrillation,” said Dr. Matthew L. Flaherty, neurologist and the study''s lead author.

The Study

Flaherty and his team collected information on all patients hospitalized for first-time intracerebral hemorrhages in the years 1988, 1993, 1994, and 1999 in the greater Cincinnati area.

The team found that the annual rate of this type of hemorrhage associated with warfarin in 1988 was 0.8 cases per 100,000 people who had the condition. By 1999, the rate has increased to 4.4 cases per 100,000 people.

Among patients over the age of 80, the rate increased from 2.5 per 100,000 people in 1988 to 45.9 in 1999.

What can be done?

Flaherty said that doctors should be more cautious when prescribing warfarin – especially to elderly patients. “Some of those patients are better off being on warfarin,” he said. “The message isn''t that no one should use warfarin. There needs to be a balance between the benefit of preventing ischemic stroke and the risk of bleeding.”

Flaherty thinks the problem will continue to worsen. “We are seeing more of these patients. And we need better treatments once the bleeding has happened,” he said.

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