The potential harms of these commonly prescribed drugs are outlined in a series of studies published in Archives of Internal Medicine, including:
– A five-year study of 100,000 patients treated at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston that found patients taking proton pump inhibitors had a 74-per-cent greater risk of contracting Clostridium difficile, a severe bacterial infection;
– A study of 1,200 patients being treated for C. difficile at Boston Medical Center that found those taking PPIs had a 42-per-cent increased risk of a recurrence of the bacterial infection;
– An analysis of the Women’s Health Initiative Study, which includes more than 160,000 women, that showed taking PPIs was associated with an increase in fractures, including fractures of the spine, forearm and the wrist, but not of the hip;
– A study at National Taiwan University College of Medicine in Taipei that found prescribing high doses of proton pump inhibitors for bleeding ulcers, a common treatment, did not reduce rates of bleeding, surgery or death in patients.
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