Women who take analgesics for a long time of paracetamol and ibuprofen are more likely to complain about hearing problems. These are the results of a study conducted in the United States.

It is about the treatment of pain medication for six years or more.

Details of the work are published on the pages of the American Journal of Epidemiology.

The project was led by the authoritative Boston physician Gary Karen, a professor at the Harvard School of Medicine.

"Although the risk of hearing impairment is very modest, given the tremendous popularity of this class of drugs, modest risk can have global consequences," says Professor Karen, of Brigham Women's Hospital in Boston.

In the United States, aspirin and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) continue to gain popularity, their sales are constantly increasing. This is probably due to the aging of the population and the spread of age-related diseases such as osteoarthritis.

In 2010, 43 million, or 19% of US adults, regularly took aspirin. More than 29 million, or 12.1% of Americans regularly used various NSAIDs. These figures are respectively 57% and 41% higher than in 2005.

At the same time, two-thirds of American women of elderly age suffer hearing loss in varying degrees.

After reading the data on the connection of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and deafness in men, Boston scientists decided to test the existence of such a connection among the female half of the population.

Recall, in March 2010 The American Journal of Medicine reported that a prolonged intake of NSAIDs increases the risk of hearing problems in men by 16-33%, depending on the age.

Now, the staff of the Brigham Women's Hospital included 55,850 participants in the Nurses' Health Study project - the largest American women's health research. The authors attempted to find a link between hearing impairment and the intake of ibuprofen, paracetamol, aspirin.

The results of the analysis confirmed the worst assumptions.

Long-term use of analgesics of ibuprofen and paracetamol increases the risk of hearing impairment by 10% and 9%, respectively.

Nevertheless, aspirin was completely justified.

Scientists have found no connection between the usual therapeutic doses of aspirin and hearing impairment in women.

"The results of our work complement the growing evidence base for the connection of NSAIDs and paracetamol with hearing loss. Unfortunately, the biological mechanism of this connection is incomprehensible, "Karen said..

medbe. en.