Decongestant use may increase risk of stroke, Univ. of Penn. pilot study concludes.
This article was originally published in The Tan Sheet
Executive Summary
OTC DECONGESTANT USE MAY INCREASE STROKE RISK, University of Pennsylvania researchers concluded in a pilot study presented at the American Academy of Neurology's recent annual meeting in Boston. Eric Raps, MD, et al. said "the paucity of established risk factors for stroke, the relative youth of the patients...and the fact that they were all using decongestants at the time of stroke suggest that these medications may precipitate stroke in individuals with a vasoreactive profile."
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OTC DECONGESTANT USE MAY INCREASE STROKE RISK, University of Pennsylvania researchers concluded in a pilot study presented at the American Academy of Neurology's recent annual meeting in Boston. Eric Raps, MD, et al. said "the paucity of established risk factors for stroke, the relative youth of the patients...and the fact that they were all using decongestants at the time of stroke suggest that these medications may precipitate stroke in individuals with a vasoreactive profile." "Adregenic decongestants have a predominantly alpha-agonist action" and "depending on the agent and the dose, peripheral arterial constriction and cerebral vasodilation or vasoconstriction may result," the study notes. Therefore, the "apparent association of decongestant use and stroke may justify a search for a causal relationship using epidemiological techniques" and/or a reevaluation of marketed decongestants, many of which were approved as DESI drugs prior to 1962, the researchers suggested. Co-researcher Lidgia Vives, MD, said future Penn data on hemorrhagic cases will be forwarded to Lawrence Brass, PhD, Yale University Department of Neurology, for inclusion in an ongoing study examining hemorrhagic stroke. The Penn study examined eight patients, seen "at a single university medical center between 1994 and 1997," who were "taking sympathomimetic decongestants at the time of their stroke." The patients, five females and three males, had an average age of 50 and exhibited "few `traditional' stroke risk factors" such as hypertension, obesity or smoking. Five of the patients had used pseudoephedrine prior to their ischemic events; the other three had taken phenylpropanolamine. In one case, a "36-year-old man with a history of migraine and environmental allergies" developed a right occipital stroke four days after taking oral pseudoephedrine and Neosynephrine (oxymetazoline). The Nonprescription Drug Manufacturers Association responded to the release of the pilot results by stressing that the study was not a "controlled epidemiological study" and that "OTC decongestants have a long history of safe and effective use when used as directed." |