What Your Doctor May Not Be Telling You About Plavix
Plavix is sold to prevent heart attacks and strokes by Bristol-Meyers Squibb. Plavix is prescribed to treat very serious and life-threatening conditions, but it can also have some serious and life-threatening side effects. If your doctor is considering Plavix for you, there’s a lot you should know about this drug.
What is Plavix? Does it work?
Plavix prevents blood from clotting. Blood clotting happens when platelets—cell fragments in the blood—group together. If your blood has too few platelets, it won’t clot and you might not stop bleeding. Too many platelets can cause large blood clots that may block veins or arteries, or even cause a heart attack or stroke. Plavix is absorbed and activated in the liver and prevents platelets from grouping together.
For most patients, Plavix prevents clots from forming, but for some people, Plavix doesn’t work. A genetic difference in a small number of people, about two to fourteen percent of the US population, prevents their bodies from metabolizing Plavix as they don’t produce enough of the compound that causes the liver to metabolize it. For people with this genetic condition, Plavix may not prevent a heart attack or stroke. Your doctor can do testing to find out if you are one of the group of people for whom Plavix will not work.1
What should I go over with my doctor?
Some patients have no side effects, have had very good results with Plavix and even credit it with saving their lives. Others have had many different side effects, bruising, uncontrollable bleeding, memory loss, fatigue, swelling of hands and feet and many more.2
The FDA warns that Plavix can cause severe side effects, including bruising, nosebleeds and serious bleeding which can even lead to death, clots in blood vessels, jaundice, coma, stroke and seizure. 3
If you’re taking the acid reflux drugs Nexium or Prilosec, you should not take Plavix. Nexium and Prilosec can cut Plavix’s effectiveness in half. Several other drugs may reduce Plavix’s effect. Talk to you doctor about any other medication you’re on and how Plavix might be effected by it.4
What if I’m already taking Plavix?
You should never stop taking any prescribed medication without talking to your doctor, but especially not Plavix. Patients who stop taking Plavix can develop clotting and could suffer a heart attack or stroke or other damage to their cardiovascular system. Patients coming off Plavix should be closely monitored by a doctor.
Learn everything that you can about Plavix before you start taking it.
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1 Medical News Today, Catharine Paddock, PhD, “Plavix Blood Thinner Effectiveness Influenced by Gene Variants” (22 December 2008), http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/134076.php; FDA.gov, “FDA Drug Safety Communication: Reduced effectiveness of Plavix (clopidogrel) in patients who are poor metabolizers of the drug” (12 March 2010),
http://www.fda.gov/drugs/drugsafety/postmarketdrugsafetyinformationforpatientsandproviders/ucm203888.htm
2 askapatient.com, Patient Forums, retrieved 14 July 2012, http://www.askapatient.com/viewrating.asp?drug=20839&name=PLAVIX&sort=Timelength
3 FDA.gov, “Medication Guide, Plavix,” http://www.fda.gov/downloads/Drugs/DrugSafety/UCM243349.pdf
4 FDA.GOV, “FDA Announces New Warning on Plavix: Avoid Use with Prilosec/Prilosec OTC” (18 November 2009), http://www.fda.gov/newsEvents/Newsroom/PressAnnouncements/ucm191169.htm