Prilosec, a popular heartburn medication, has been linked with a heightened risk of kidney failure and other severe kidney problems, according to new research and complaints.

Research showing a connection between Prilosec and similar drugs and kidney failure has been around for a while, but the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology recently published a study building on old research.

Studies Suggest Prilosec, Other PPIs Increase Risk of Kidney Problems

Prilosec is a proton-pump inhibitor (PPI) drug, and is primarily used to treat heartburn, but can also be used for acid reflux and stomach ulcers.

According to the study, patients who use inhibitors PPIs like Prilosec and other similar heartburn medications are more likely to develop serious kidney problems like kidney failure than those who do not take Prilosec.

The study reports that around 15 million Americans filled prescriptions for a variety of PPI drugs in 2013 alone.

However, some PPI drugs are available without a prescription, including Prilosec. Because of Prilosec’s popularity, it is quite possible that the number of Americans using PPIs is actually much higher than the estimate given in the study.

The Prilosec side effects study analyzed information taken from the national databases of the Department of Veteran Affairs.

The data included hundreds of thousands of PPI users. Researchers compared those who used PPI drugs to treat their heartburn with those who used other methods of treatment.

Researchers looked at data over a long period of time, and included over five years of follow-up after patients took PPI drugs.

The study found that around 15 percent of the patients who used PPIs for treatment were, sometimes years later, diagnosed with chronic kidney disease.

Patients who used H2-blockers, another method of treatment, were less likely to develop chronic kidney problems at about 11 percent.

Though other factors certainly contributed to these results, once researchers allowed for these factors, the study still indicated a 28 percent increased risk of kidney problems for PPI drug patients.

Only a few of the patients involved in the study ended up developing late-stage kidney failure. However, patients that took PPIs were 96 percent more likely to develop late-stage kidney failure than patients who used other methods of treatment.

This is only one of many studies to link PPIs like Prilosec to an increased risk of kidney failure and other kidney problems.

A Johns Hopkins study with similar findings was published in JAMA Internal Medicine earlier this year.

While these studies have not provided conclusive evidence connecting PPIs with kidney failure and other kidney problems, evidence need not be definitive for consumers and the medical community to be cautious.

According to the author of one of these studies, Dr. Ziyad Al-Aly, patients should only use PPI drugs “when it is medically necessary.”

Because patients who take PPI drugs for a longer period of time are placed at higher risk of kidney failure and other problems, patients should also “limit exposure to the minimum necessary to treat the underlying medical condition.”

While the risk of developing kidney failure is, in the grand scheme of things, relatively low, patients for whom taking a drug like Prilosec is not medically necessary should avoid these drugs altogether.

Filing a Prilosec Kidney Failure Lawsuit

If you or someone you love has taken a PPI drug such as Prilosec and have since suffered from kidney failure or other serious Prilosec side effects, you may be able to file a lawsuit.