Rare, but real, side effects

Re “Bone Drugs’ Reverse Danger” [April 3]: A year ago, at age 67, I was prescribed Fosamax to treat beginning signs of osteoporosis. After the first dose, my neck and my thumbs became stiff and sore. After the second dose, my neck was so stiff that I was unable to drive because I couldn’t turn my head. My thumbs were sore and swollen -- the doctor referred to them as “arthritis thumbs.” However, the worst symptom was a burning sensation across the back of my scalp that was so severe I couldn’t rest my head against a pillow and had to sleep sitting up. I stopped the medication.

The symptoms disappeared in a couple of weeks except for the burning in my scalp, which lasted for three months. Then I was prescribed Actonel. After one dose, all the symptoms reappeared. This time, the burning in my scalp lasted nine months.

I now take calcium, do isomeric exercises and walk one to two miles every day.

JUDY KATZ

Woodland Hills

*

I bet that doctors in the Southland awoke on Monday, like I did, to find their e-mails filled with patients telling them they wanted to quit Fosamax, because of the article “Bone Drugs’ Reverse Danger.” I bet they, as I did, explained that the cases happened mostly in similar medicines, but the writer used the Fosamax hook to grab readers. Buried in the math of the article, one learns that, in fact, there have been only a few dozen cases out of millions of people taking Fosamax for years. This is as rare an adverse event as any caused by the medicines doctors prescribe. By naming Fosamax early in the article, you succeeded in hooking and scaring the reader.

Congratulations for unduly frightening hundreds of little old ladies.

DR. DAVID P. EISENMAN

Assistant professor

David Geffen School

of Medicine at UCLA