Although heart failure is predominantly caused by cardiovascular conditions such as hypertension, coronary heart disease and valvular heart disease, it can also be caused by adverse drug reactions. Several medications have been shown to have cardiotoxic effects. Among those therapeutic agents, anti-inflammatory drugs, including exogenous glucocorticoids, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and biologics, which are used to treat a broad range of diseases that are associated with inflammatory processes, are widely prescribed in clinical practice. In this review, we discuss insights from experimental models on the beneficial and cardiotoxic effects of anti-inflammatory drugs.