Celebrex is used to:

• relieve symptoms of osteoarthritis (the arthritis caused by age-related “wear and tear” on bones and joints)
• relieve symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis in adults
• manage acute pain in adults (like the short term pain you can get after a dental or surgical operation)
• treat painful menstrual cycles
• reduce the number of colon and rectum growths (colorectal polyps) in patients with a disease called Familial Adenomatous Polyposis (FAP). FAP is an inherited disease in which the rectum and colon are covered with many polyps. Celebrex is used along with the usual care for FAP patients such as surgery and exams of the rectum and colon.

Who Should Not Take Celebrex?

Do not take Celebrex if you:

• have had an allergic-type reaction to sulfa medicines.
• have had asthma, hives or allergic-type reactions after taking aspirin or other NSAID (nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) medicines. If you have asthma, you may have aspirin-sensitive asthma. If an aspirin-sensitive asthmatic takes aspirin it can cause severe narrowing of the airway (bronchospasm), and even death. Since this type of reaction also has occurred after taking NSAIDs Celebrex should not be given to aspirin-sensitive patients.

Some examples of NSAIDs are ibuprofen (Motrin, Advil), naproxen (Naprosyn, Aleve), diclofenac (Voltaren, Cataflam), and ketoprofen (Orudis). You can ask your doctor or pharmacist for a complete list of these medications.

Important Celebrex prescribing information.