Irfan Mehboob, Wazahat Hussain Warraich, Aamir Ayaz Siddiqui.
Who should use drugs for Osteoporosis
Pak Postgrad Med J Sep 2001;12(3):119-21.
Lahore General Hospital, Lahore

Detection and treatment of osteoporosis should be a health care priority. The drugs available in Pakistan to treat osteoporosis are very costly and are out of reach of a common man. Thus all postmenopausal women cannot be given these drugs. Osteoporosis must be diagnosed early if therapy is to be effective. As large number of individuals need to be screened, diagnostic technique should be simple and practical. Radiography is of limited value and photodensitometry is probably impractical. Invasive nature of bone biopsy precludes its routine use. Photon absorptiometry is the most appropriate technique, but is not available in Pakistan except in Karachi. As the drugs for osteoporosis are costly and have to be used for long time, there should be some criteria to document the presence of disease. As it is generally thought that osteoporosis is less common in our country a simple questionnaire was developed to screen out the population who have osteoporosis and need the treatment for it. About 400 postmenopausal women were screened who attended out patient departments of teaching hospitals.

Category: Internal Medicine
Keywords: Osteoporosis. Menopause.

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