Feedback on Vioxx Side Effect and Usage

Vioxx Feedback

If you’ve used Vioxx, please help others by adding your feedback. What would you tell your best friend about this product? Please remember that we do not give medical advice. That is for your local health care provider, who is familiar with your medical history. You can use the form below to add your comments, feedback or Vioxx review.

Subj: No side effects
Date: 6/16/2004
I have taken Vioxx for two years to relieve the chronic pain of a herniated and fragmented disk (C4, C5). It has literally changed my life and made me fully functional again! For the first two years following my injury, I stopped doing anything that involved carrying things on my shoulder (like my purse) for more than 5-10 minutes. Now I can go all day with a purse, overnight bag, briefcase, whatever. I had thought the “irritation” was life-long stress that caused my shoulders to ache and “crunch”. Then, I got a real diagnosis and a plan calling for Vioxx. At 38 years old, I felt alive again! No side effects — I had lost 60 pounds (with the help of Weight Watchers) before starting on Vioxx, and I’ve been able to keep it off for two years now. I’m a big believer.

Bobbi

Subj: Improvement
Date: 6/29/2004
I began using vioxx due to severe knee pain. The improvement was almost immediate. However, now the stiffness and pain have returned. I think the product served its purpose but needs to be utilized in conjunction with an all around wellness program if you suffer from OA.

Mark

Subj: Heel spur
Date: 7/9/2004
I have just taken my 3rd dose of Vioxx for a heel spur and so far so good. The pain from the heel spur is already gone and I’ve not felt any side effects so far.

Ellen

Subj: Unusual experience
Date: 9/30/2004
I also had a very unusual experience the first day I took viox. It was a wavy dizzy feeling that made my upper body feel very weak, almost like I had no control over it. I took it for only 3 days and I still get that same experience periodicly. My right upper stomach has had on and off pains daily for a month. My legs swell or muscles tighten in them, I tingle and extremities fall asleep/ and my loer lip is numb. I took vioxx for an injured finger.

Juli

Subj: Withdrawals from Vioxx?
Date: 10/16/2004
Has anyone experienced any type of withdrawals from stopping the use of Vioxx. I have been taking it for about a year and was cut off cold turkey by my physician at the Veterans hospital.

Leona

Subj: Vioxx should be banned
Date: 2/24/2005
I also took Vioxx for 3 weeks, I am now thining away and the doctors can not figure it out. I get jaw pains and upper right abdominal pain. Notice that I stopped using Vioxx quite a while ago. These effects seem permanent. This Vioxx should be banned for destroying lives. I am sure it was the Vioxx. You all have the same symptoms as me.

Steven

Subj: Almost died on Vioxx
Date: 7/26/2005
DON’T TAKE THIS DRUG! My step dad was on Vioxx for back pain and almost died due to its use. He started out by just acting strange and doing strange things. Then ended up in the hospital after blacking out at the store. They found that his breathing was shallow and his hart beat was irregular. They still didn’t know exactly why these things were happening to him. He had 3 more of these episodes and leg swelling/stiffness and major chest pain. Then finely they took him off of the Vioxx and within the week my dad was symptom free. We are still not sure if it was because of him taking Vioxx with other prescription drugs to decrease blood pressure and pain meds or not. But we do know that it was the Vioxx. His Dr said that he might have died and that all the other meds he was taking should have been fine with Vioxx. I’m sure that he would have died if he hadn’t stopped taking the Vioxx.

Crystal

Update: Vioxx has been pulled from the market. According to the FDA, a worldwide recall of Vioxx was due to an increased risk of serious cardiovascular events, including heart attacks and strokes. If you are a Vioxx patient, call your doctor about switching to an alternative medication.

Subj: Severe fasciculation syndrome
Date: 3/3/2008
I am a former vioxx user. As a member of a yahoo group for vioxxcox2 inhibitor victims, we share symptomology. The most common symptom among all seems to be leg cramps. Symptoms suggest “severe fasciculation syndrome”, though individual diagnosis have differed. Research at the University of Buffalo, (Singer, et al) suggest cox2 inhibitors (celebrex was used) to be potassium channel blockers.

Other research indicates cox2 to effect the sensory neurons by slowing respiration of the mitochondria. The yahoo victim’s group is 200 or more in numbers and the incidences of fasciculation is almost 100 per cent. This group is about 4 or 5 years post ingestion of Vioxx and continue to experience these symptoms. However, in reviewing the Celebrex questions on your website fasciculation doesn’t appear to be a significant complaint. Do you have any thoughts on this issue? May we (the group) be of any help to you in terms of correlational studies or else… Best regards,

Dan – clinical psychologist-retired

AskDocWeb: For those not familiar with fasciculation, that is the medical term for twitching. Benign fasciculation syndrome (BFS) is a neurological disorder characterized by the twitching of various voluntary muscles in the body. Twitching can occur in any of the voluntary muscles but is most common in the eyelids, arms, legs, and feet. The twitching may occur occasionally or nearly continuously. Typically an intentional movement of the muscle will cause the twitching to cease immediately, but it may return once the intentional movement is discontinued.

Although twitching is sometimes a symptom of serious diseases, it is more often due to more benign causes (BFS, over-exertion, etc), and virtually everyone experiences some episodes of benign fasciculation during their lifetime. There are many conditions, diseases, dysfunctions and drugs that can cause twitching. Here is a partial list.

Acanthocytosis
Aceruloplasminemia
Acute hypoglycemia
Addison’s Disease
Adrenal adenoma, familial
Adrenal Cancer
Adrenal Cortex Diseases
Adrenal gland hyperfunction
Adrenal gland hypofunction
Adrenal incidentaloma
Adrenal medulla neoplasm
African sleeping sickness
Alcohol withdrawal syndrome
Alcoholic intoxication
Alcohol-Induced Disorders
Alkalosis
Amphetamine abuse
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
Anteromedial-inferior thalamic syndrome
Anticonvulsant drugs
Antipsychotic drugs
Antipsychotic drugs
Anxiety
Arginase deficiency
Asterixis
Ativan withdrawal
Basal ganglia calcification, idiopathic 1
Benign familial essential tremor
Bovine spongiform encephalopathy
Brain Fag syndrome
Calcification of basal ganglia with or without hypocalcemia
Carbamate insecticide poisoning
Cerebellar degeneration
Cerebellar disease
Cerebellar tumor
Ceroid lipofuscinosis, neuronal 6, late infantile
Choloxine
Chromosome 20p, partial duplication
Cocaine Hydrochloride
Cockayne syndrome
Combarros Calleja Leno syndrome
Congenital hepatic porphyria
Congenital herpes simplex
Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease
Da Costa syndrome
Degenerative motor system disease
Dementia With Lewy Bodies
Demerol withdrawal
Dextrothyroxine Sodium
Dilaudid withdrawal
Discontinuation syndrome
Dopram Injection
Doxapram Hydrochloride
Dysphasic dementia, hereditary
Dystonia 3, torsion, X-linked
Dystonias
Essential tremor
Fahr’s Syndrome
Fatal familial insomnia
Fluphenazine
Friedreich’s ataxia
Frontotemporal dementia
Fucosidosis
General paresis
Graves’ disease
GTP cyclohydrolase deficiency
Hepatic encephalopathy
Herb Alerti
Heroin dependence
Heroin withdrawal
High T4 syndrome
Holocarboxylase synthetase deficiency
Huntington’s Disease
Hyperadrenalism
Hypercapnia
Hypercapnia Hypercapnia (elevated partial pressure of carbon dioxide)
Hyperthyroidism
Hypoadrenalism
Hypoadrenocorticism – hypoparathyroidism – moniliasis
Hypoglycemia
Hypomagnesemia primary
Hypothyroidism
IBIDS syndrome
Interaction of Aldomet and lithium
Interaction of Amodopa and lithium
Interaction of Labetalol and tricyclic antidepressant
Interaction of Methyldopa and lithium
Interaction of Normodyne and tricyclic antidepressant
Japanese encephalitis
Joubert Syndrome
Krabbe leukodystrophy
Kwashiorkor
Lhermitte-McAlpine syndrome
Lidocaine toxicity
Lindsay-Burn syndrome
Manganese toxicity
Marchiafava-Bignami disease
Mental retardation, X-linked, Cabezas type
Mercury poisoning
Metachromatic Leukodystrophy
Methylmalonicacidemia with homocystinuria
Minamata disease
Multiple endocrine neoplasia
Multiple sclerosis (MS)
Myoclonic epilepsy benign, adult, familial
Myoclonus
Neuhauser-Daly-Magnelli syndrome
Neuroleptic Malignant Syndrome
Neuronal intranuclear inclusion disease
Neurosyphilis – general paresis
Normokalemic periodic paralysis
Olivopontocerebellar Atrophy
Opiate withdrawal
Optic atrophy 2
Organophosphate insecticide poisoning
Pallidopyramidal syndrome
Parkinson disease
Pelizaeus-Merzbacher brain sclerosis
Pelizaeus-Merzbacher Disease
Phenothiazine antenatal infection
Phenothiazines
Phenytoin
Pheochromocytoma as part of Neurofibromatosis
Physiologic tremor
PIBIDS syndrome
Pick’s disease of the brain
Pituitary tumors, adult
Porphyria
Purine nucleoside phosphorylase deficiency
Ramsay Hunt Syndrome Type 2
Respiratory insufficiency
Salvioli syndrome
Schilder’s Disease
Selenium poisoning
Serotonin Syndrome
Severe respiratory insufficiency
Sialidosis type I
Sialidosis type II
Spinal bulbar motor neuropathy
Spinocerebellar
Spira syndrome
Substance Withdrawal Syndrome
Thalamic syndrome
Thyrotoxicosis
Toxoplasmosis
Tremor hereditary essential, 1
Tremor hereditary essential, 2
Uremic syndrome
Venezuelan equine encephalitis
Wernicke’s disease
Wernicke’s encephalopathy
West Nile encephalitis
Western equine encephalitis
Whole-body acute irradiation – cerebral syndrome
Wilson’s disease
Zinc deficiency

It is common for the patient to fixate on ALS, MS, Parkinson’s or some other serious neurological disorder, refusing to believe the BFS diagnosis. Vioxx report – Page 27 – Last page 3