A few nights my husband and I went to a dinner sponsored by the competitor of vioxx. There was a room full of rheumatologist and orthopedics who thought the new generation of NSAIDS (the cox-2 inhibitors) were going to revolutionize how we treat musculoskelatal pain despite the high cost of these new medications. The speaker talked about the decrease in GI side effects of these new medications as the most significant advantage to switching people from the old NSAIDS to the new cox-2 inhibitors. The current indication is treatment is signs and symptoms of osteoarthritis. Vioxx does have a quicker onset of action and is being used for acute pain. Trials are being done for treatment of gout. The decrease GI side effects is a important consideration in the geriatric population requiring chronic pain relief. I don't have any experience using it in breastfeeding mother. Feedback from patients using Vioxx, Celebrix and other NSAIDS has been mixed. But many have benefitted. Is there an advantage of going to these drug rep dinners? It is one of the only places I can go to meet so many doctors at once and share my interest also. Denise Punger MD FAAFP Now having both my 3 1/2 year old and 2 year old pulling at my shirt for a turn. ________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com *********************************************** The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html