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Rrl of Nsaids Against Dsymenorrhea

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Submitted By tiffanyespiritu
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Review of Related Literature: Dysmenorrhea among women is not common, most of the time women choose to miss out on the whole day of activities because the pain that it can cause. Because of that there are medications in the market that are being sold to prevent or lessen the said pain; one of these drugs is NSAIDs. NSAIDs are the most commonly prescribed treatment, and essentially the first line of defense against cases of severe primary dysmenorrhea (Locklear, 2008). According to Medscape Medical News, comparison of various NSAIDs vs. other NSAIDs showed limited evidence that any individual NSAID was superior for either pain relief or safety. For patients who consistently experience moderate to severe pain during menstrual flow, scheduled dosing of NSAIDs may provide more consistent pain relief than prescribing them to be taken "as needed" (Goldschneider & Waldo, 2008). According to Helms (2006), NSAIDS and COX-2 inhibitors relieve pain of dysmenorrhea via inhibition of cyclooxygenase (1 and 2), the enzyme that converts arachidonic acid to prostaglandins. The COS-2 inhibitors rofecoxib (VIOXX) and valdecoxib (Bextra) have been approved by the FDA for the treatment of dysmenorrhea in women 18 yrs and older (Locklear, 2008). But then NSAIDS are only successful in 77% to 80% of patients with dysmenorrhea (Gourley, Helms, Herfindal & Quan, 2006). Many NSAIDs block the cyclooxygenase pathways, but they do not block the lipoxygenase pathway, these observations may explain why these drugs do not relieve primary dysmenorrhea in all patients (Tollison, 2002). For the patients who do not respond to NSAIDs and/or oral contraceptives, a wide range of alternating therapies have been proven effective, including transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS), acupuncture, omega-3 fatty acids, transdermal nitroglycerin, thiamine and magnesium supplement (Taylor, 2003).

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