Nimesulide – Pain Killer or Pain Maker
Nimesulide is back in
limelight. Thanks to the survey conducted by Indian Medical Association (IMA)
which assured the country that this drug is safe for human body despite the fact
that it is banned in some European countries like Finland, Spain, Portugal and
not licenced in USA, Britain and Australia. Fingures are putting up in the mode
of survey also. Some 50 doctors were participated and they submitted their data
on the use of drug on half a million patients.
Nimesulide is an NSAID (Non-Steroid Anti-Inflammatory
Drugs ) which is used in pain and fever management treatment. It is also
frequently used in combination with yet another analgesic Paracetamol. In the
last few years, nimesulide-based analgesics have overtaken the paracetamol-based
analgesics
Nimesulide is usually given in doses of up to 200 mg
twice daily by mouth or rectally for inflammatory conditions, fever, and pain.
In India around 90 companies manufacture this drug out of which some 10
companies prepare Kids formulation.
There are plenty of cases in which nimesulide is proved to be dangerous while there are some reports that its use is safe. Many references of nimesulide treatment is mentioned in Toxicology Literature Online Databank (TOXLINE), a database of the National Library of Medicine's TOXNET system.
Nimesulide
was considered effective in treatment for the short-term management of
post-traumatic pain in a study
published in Drugs; VOL 46 ISS Suppl 1 1993, P183-186. Even in dental surgeries
(Drugs; VOL 46 ISS Suppl 1 1993, P168-170), use of nimesulide proved more
effective in the painful inflammatory symptoms and signs associated with the
operation. These effects were accompanied by improved quality of sleep and
recovery of swallowing function. According to one study which was published in
Journal Drug Invest.; VOL 10 ISS Sep 1995, P139-146. nimesulide was associated
with a statistically significant improvement in the pain intensity in
osteoarthritis and gives improvement in the number of night awakenings, pain on
active and passive movement, and morning stiffness. In another study published
in Drugs; VOL 46 ISS Suppl 1 1993, P180-81 it was observed that nimesulide was
effective in the prevention of inflammatory complications after laser treatment
of ocular diseases.
While comparing nimesulide with paracetamol it was
observed (Drugs Exp. Clin. Res.;
VOL 18 ISS 2 1992, P63-68), that nimesulide exhibited a more rapid tendency to
temperature normalization than paracetamol. In
paediatric cases one study published in Drugs; VOL 46 ISS Suppl 1 1993, P231-233
approves its effectiveness on children suffering with inflamation of the upper
repiratory tract and fever. Another study of Drugs; VOL 46 ISS Suppl 1 1993 Page
204-207 shows that nimesulide was more effective than paracetamol in normalizing
body temperature and in reducing the inflammatory indices.
This drug proves to be effective on aspirin-sensitive asthmatic patients and may provide a novel approach to the
treatment of bronchial asthma as per report published in Drugs; VOL 46 ISS Suppl 1 1993, P115-120.
On the flip side a study published in Drugs; VOL 46 ISS Suppl 1 1993, P277-280 put emphasis on adverse
events of using nimesulide which were related to the digestive system, body as a whole, skin, and nervous system.
The drug was particularly well tolerated by the liver, lungs, kidneys, and blood.
While a study published in Drugs; VOL 46 ISS Suppl 1 1993, P111-114 warns that nimesulide in chronic bronchitis