The following was received from a recent Epocrates newsletter update alerting physicians and practitioners to the possibility of side effects for the following drug class:

Bisphosphonates and Severe Musculoskeletal Pain
The FDA has emphasized the possibility of severe and sometimes incapacitating bone, joint, and/or muscle pain in patients taking bisphosphonates. Although severe musculoskeletal pain is included in the prescribing information for all bisphosphonates, this association may be overlooked by healthcare professionals, delaying diagnosis, prolonging pain and/or impairment, and necessitating the use of analgesics. The severe musculoskeletal pain may occur within days, months, or years after starting a bisphosphonate.

Vitamins and minerals play an important part of bone health.  Those vitamins include calcium in a form that can be absorbed by the stomach, vitamin D, and others.

Patients and practitioners need to be aware of is this potential serious problem with this class of drugs.  For further information please contact us at the This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it .