Private MD News - Musculoskeletal Diseases

The International Osteoporosis Foundation (IOF) is informing individuals who have gotten a positive result from a lab test for the bone condition that just because they suffered a fracture while taking osteoporosis medicine doesn't mean the drugs are ineffective.

Furthermore, the IOF advises physicians who are second-guessing an osteoporosis drug therapy after a fracture in one of their patients to consult the organization's guidelines. At most, these medications can only lessen the chances of vertebral fracture by 70 percent, hip fracture by 50 percent and can only be expected to be 20 percent effective at stopping non-vertebral fracture, the IOF states.

"Notwithstanding these complexities and limitations, the Working Group has used the best available evidence to create a checklist of pragmatic criteria which can help doctors define treatment failure and take appropriate action," said Professor Adolfo Diez-Perez, chair of the IFO Inadequate Responders Working Group.

The U.S. National Library of Medicine states that 20 percent of American women over the age of 50 are afflicted with the bone-thinning disease. For these individuals, a lab test is important for determining treatment options.