Sunday 18 March 2018

Can Celecoxib and Ibuprofen be used interchangeably?

Hi folks/Stephen,

My mother is a grade 4 brain cancer patient. We have been using Celebrex(Celecoxib) as a part of her drug cocktail.

However, in situations of heavy head/headaches and/or body aches, she often asks for Ibuprofen which we've observed helps relieve her pain.

Both being COX-2 inhibitors, I wanted to ask if both Ibuprofen and Celebrex can be used interchangeably, or is there some reaction that I should know of? If there is a reaction between the two, how much difference in time should I keep between the two medicines?

Would love to hear from you guys.

4 comments:

  1. Ibruprofen is slightly more selective for COX-1 versus COX-2, while Celebrex is selective for COX-2 with only slight inhibition of COX-1.

    Because of this increased selectivity for COX-1, ibuprofen probably brings greater risk of gastrointestinal side-effects with long-term use.

    https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1211/0022357011778070
    See figure 2

    https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/537837

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    Replies
    1. The main risk of regularly combining COX-1 inhibitors with COX-2 inhibitors is the potential gastrointestinal damage, but if she's only using ibuprofen occasionally this might not be a problem.

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    2. Thanks Stephen! So I guess they're both okay to be used together on the same day. Will use them on occasions for my mom in that case :)

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    3. I would probably skip the Celebrex on the days if you know beforehand she'll be doing the ibuprofen.

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