ArticleBMJ open2013
Consumption of analgesics before a marathon and the incidence of cardiovascular, gastrointestinal and renal problems: a cohort study.
Article in BMJ open, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 24 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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Who cites it
24 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 84 citations in OpenAlex.
- Analgesic Use in Sports.Deutsches Arzteblatt international · 2023Pooled it
- Degree of Cyclooxygenase-2 Inhibition Modulates Blood Pressure Response.Hypertension (Dallas, Tex. : 1979) · 2026Trial
- Trial
- [Doping in recreational sports].Bundesgesundheitsblatt, Gesundheitsforschung, Gesundheitsschutz · 2026Review
- Acute effects of caffeine and paracetamol on velocity and power in resistance exercise.Frontiers in physiology · 2025Article
- Investigating Painkiller Use in Amateur Football: A Coach's Perspective.Journal of personalized medicine · 2024Article
- The Essential and Optimal Analgesic and Anti-Inflammatory Medicines for Athletes at the Olympic Games.Sports medicine - open · 2024Article
- Painkiller intake and problematic health literacy in sport and music students - A cross-sectional study.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Demographics, culture and participatory nature of multi-marathoning-An observational study highlighting issues with recommendations.PloS one · 2024Observational
- A Scoping Review of Non-Medical and Extra-Medical Use of Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs (NSAIDs).Drug safety · 2021Article
- Sex differences in the consumption of over-the-counter analgesics among amateur volleyball players.BMC sports science, medicine & rehabilitation · 2021Article
- Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs increase urinary neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin in recreational runners.Scandinavian journal of medicine & science in sports · 2020Article
- The Prevalence of Legal Performance-Enhancing Substance Use and Potential Cognitive and or Physical Doping in German Recreational Triathletes, Assessed via the Randomised Response Technique.Sports (Basel, Switzerland) · 2019Article
- International Society of Sports Nutrition Position Stand: nutritional considerations for single-stage ultra-marathon training and racing.Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition · 2019Review
- No Pain, No Gain? Prevalence, Location, Context, and Coping Strategies with Regard to Pain Among Young German Elite Basketball Players.Journal of human kinetics · 2019Article
- [Joint pain and consumption of analgesics among young elite athletes : Nationwide data from youth basketball].Schmerz (Berlin, Germany) · 2019Review
- Endurance Performance is Influenced by Perceptions of Pain and Temperature: Theory, Applications and Safety Considerations.Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.) · 2018Review
- Serum sodium changes in marathon participants who use NSAIDs.BMJ open sport & exercise medicine · 2018Article
- The Cardiovascular Pharmacology of Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs.Trends in pharmacological sciences · 2017Review
- Challenges to promoting health for amateur athletes through anti-doping policy.Drugs (Abingdon, England) · 2017Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectivesTo prevent pain inhibiting their performance, many athletes ingest over-the-counter (OTC) analgesics before competing. We aimed at defining the use of analgesics and the relation between OTC analgesic use/dose and adverse events (AEs) during and after the race, a relation that has not been investigated to date.
designProspective (non-interventional) cohort study, using an online questionnaire.
settingThe Bonn marathon 2010.
participants3913 of 7048 participants in the Bonn marathon 2010 returned their questionnaires. PRIMARY AND SECONDARY OUTCOMES: Intensity of analgesic consumption before sports; incidence of AEs in the cohort of analgesic users as compared to non-users.
resultsThere was no significant difference between the premature race withdrawal rate in the analgesics cohort and the cohort who did not take analgesics ('controls'). However, race withdrawal because of gastrointestinal AEs was significantly more frequent in the analgesics cohort than in the control. Conversely, withdrawal because of muscle cramps was rare, but it was significantly more frequent in controls. The analgesics cohort had an almost 5 times higher incidence of AEs (overall risk difference of 13%). This incidence increased significantly with increasing analgesic dose. Nine respondents reported temporary hospital admittance: three for temporary kidney failure (post-ibuprofen ingestion), four with bleeds (post-aspirin ingestion) and two cardiac infarctions (post-aspirin ingestion). None of the control reported hospital admittance.
conclusionsThe use of analgesics before participating in endurance sports may cause many potentially serious, unwanted AEs that increase with increasing analgesic dose. Analgesic use before endurance sports appears to pose an unrecognised medical problem as yet. If verifiable in other endurance sports, it requires the attention of physicians and regulatory authorities.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.