( A long-term study of the most widely us...)Women Faces No Risk on Discontinuation of Osteoporosis Drug,Health

A long-term study of the most widely used osteoporosis drug has found that many women can discontinue //the drug after five years without increasing their fracture risk for as long as five more years.

The study on alendronate was led by researchers at the University of California, San Francisco. The research also showed that women at very high risk of painful spine fractures might be better-off continuing treatment.

"This has important implications as it has not been known whether treatment of osteoporosis should be continued indefinitely," said lead author Dennis Black, PhD, professor in the UCSF Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics. "Because women with osteoporosis, particularly older post-menopausal women, often need to take multiple drugs, this would be welcome news for this group."

According to Black, shorter term studies of up to five years duration have shown reductions in fracture risk with alendronate treatment. This was the first study to examine the effects on fracture using the drug longer than five years, he said.

"We found that women who discontinued the drug had the same rate of non-spine fractures as women who continued using the drug," he said. "However, for clinically-recognized spine fractures, usually discovered due to back pain, continuing alendronate was better than discontinuing. And, if women choose to continue, we showed that 10 years of treatment is safe."

The new findings are from a follow-up study to the initial randomized trial that examined the effect of daily alendronate, a bisphosphonate or anti-resorptive drug, on bone mineral density and fracture risk in post-menopausal women with low BMD for up to 3.8 years.

Alendronate is used to reduce bone loss, increase bone density and reduce the risk of spine, wrist and hip fractures in postmenopausal women. Bisphosphonates are the most commonly used treatment for postmenopausal osteoporosis.

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