Along with steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (or glucocorticoids, cortisone derivatives), non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) constitute the large family of anti-inflammatory drugs. As their name suggests, they help fight inflammation, the body’s defense process against aggression. They are used as an analgesic (to relieve various pains) and / or antipyretic (in case of fever), and in higher doses as aanti-inflammatory (for inflammations of rheumatic and osteo-articular origins).
There are two types of NSAIDs:
Propionic acid derivatives which work by inhibiting the synthesis of prostaglandins, the substances responsible for inflammation. Ibuprofen (Advil® 200 mg, Antarène® 200 mg) and ketoprofen (Toprec®), available without a prescription, are part of this family.
Acetylsalicylic acid, better known asaspirin, shares the same mode of action (inhibition of prostaglandin synthesis) but is distinguished from other NSAIDs by a particular side effect, Reye’s syndrome (a rare but serious liver and brain damage, which mainly affects children) .
Why do we say to be wary of it?
To the extent that they help with pain and fever, the two reasons forself-medication the most common, NSAIDs are often used. Too often, if we judge the different risks that this class of drug presents. We are well aware of their digestive risks: “NSAIDs are aggressive for the walls of the stomach,” explains Professor Jean-Paul Giroud, clinical pharmacologist; on the one hand because they are acidic, on the other hand because they inhibit prostaglandins, some of which have the action of protecting the digestive tract. “With the consequence of more or less serious digestive undesirable effects such as nausea, heartburn, ulcer, even hemorrhage of the digestive tract, without there necessarily having been any warning signs or antecedents of adverse effects severe gastrointestinal.
A risk of kidney failure
Less well-known are the risks to the kidneys: in some rare but serious cases, NSAIDs can cause renal failure. They have many drug interactions: they decrease the activity of certain drugs (diuretics, antihypertensives, heart failure drugs) while they increase the action of others (antidiabetics, anticoagulants). Finally, in pregnant women, “all NSAIDs can cause fetal and / or neonatal cardiac and / or renal toxicity, sometimes irreversible, even fatal, in particular from the start of the 6th month of pregnancy. », Recalls the CRAT (Reference center on teratogenic agents). Also despite their falsely reassuring image, NSAIDs are far from being harmless drugs …
