Women may take a 'break' from Osteoporosis drugs

A new study found that the most commonly used osteoporosis drug continued to protect most postmenopausal women against non-vertebral fractures for five years after they stopped using it. This indicates that taking a break from the drug will not result in loss of benefits.

Osteoporosis leads to brittle bones which are susceptible to fracture.

Researchers at the University of California San Francisco tracked 1,099 elderly women taking alendronate, sold by Merck & Co. as Fosamax, for as long as 10 years and found the risk for fractures in those who took drug without break and those who stopped after five years, to be almost same.

However, a drop in the bone-mineral density was seen in those women, who discontinued the use of the drug but their bone-fracture rates were similar to the ones who continued taking it.

"There are subsets of women who can probably stop for a certain period of time," said study lead author Dennis Black, professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at the University of California, San Francisco. "These tend to be women who are at a lower risk for fractures, maybe don't have previous fractures, and their bone density is not really low."

"On the other hand, women who are at very high risk, especially for fractures of the spine, might be better off continuing on the drug," Black said.

Other experts were amazed at the length of the benefits but said that women who have already suffered vertebral fractures or have low bone-mineral density may benefit by sticking with the treatment for more than five years.

According to Black this particular Osteoporosis therapy can be taken for a while and then stopped and then continued again. You may not have to take it forever, once you start using it.

This will definitely have more women turning to Osteoporosis drugs. The study was sponsored by Merck was published in the Dec. 27 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.