Popular heartburn drugs linked to higher death risk

Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis News

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Risk increases the longer the drugs are used.
Popular heartburn drugs called proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) have been linked to a variety of health problems, including serious kidney damage, bone fractures and dementia. Now, a new study from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis shows that longtime use of the drugs also is associated with an increased risk of death.

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A kidney doctor by profession, Al–Aly has previously published studies linking PPIs to kidney disease, and other researchers have shown an association with other health problems. Al–Aly, first author Yan Xie, PhD, a data scientist, and colleagues reasoned that since each of these side effects carries a small risk of death, together they may affect the mortality rate of PPI users. The risk rose steadily the longer people used the drugs. After 30 days, the risk of death in the PPI and H2 blocker groups was not significantly different, but among people taking the drugs for one to two years, the risk to PPI users was nearly 50 percent higher than that of H2 blocker users.
 

“A lot of times people get prescribed PPIs for a good medical reason, but then doctors don’t stop it and patients just keep getting refill after refill after refill,” Al–Aly said. “There needs to be periodic re–assessments as to whether people need to be on these.”