Heart attack patients unnecessarily use beta blockers even though they offer no clear benefits, a landmark study has found.
The daily tablets, which can cause fatigue, nausea and even sexual dysfunction, are offered to the majority of patients who suffer a heart attack.
Around 60,000 people in Britain are prescribed beta blockers every year and many will continue to take the pills for the rest of their lives.
But a study found that they do not reduce the risk of death or further heart attacks in about half of patients.
Beta blockers are still a standard treatment offered to heart attack patients on the NHS (stock image)
Around 60,000 people in Britain are prescribed beta blockers every year and many will continue to take the pills for the rest of their lives (stock image)
Experts say the findings will change the way heart attack patients are treated by the NHS, freeing tens of thousands from uncomfortable side effects.
Dr. Malcolm Finlay, consultant cardiologist at Barts Heart Center in London, said: ‘Beta-blockers are still standard treatment for almost anyone who has a heart attack on the NHS.
“If we could safely take patients off them, thousands would avoid the side effects.”
When beta blockers were first administered in the 1960s, they were seen as one of the most effective ways to keep patients from having another attack.
The tablets block the effects of hormones such as adrenaline, which are known to increase heart rate and blood pressure. This reduces the burden on the heart and helps the organ recover after the stress of an attack.
However, in the past thirty years, more effective treatments for heart attacks have emerged, including coronary angioplasty, which involves surgically inserting a balloon into the blocked artery to reopen it. This is usually followed by the insertion of a stent – a small mesh tube that keeps the artery open.
Despite these advances, beta blockers are still a standard treatment offered to NHS heart attack patients.
The groundbreaking findings that the pills are ineffective for many were announced yesterday at the American College of Cardiology in Atlanta, Georgia. The study of 5,000 patients with a recent heart attack in 45 countries concluded that the only patients who benefit from beta blockers are those with heart failure, an incurable condition that stops the heart from pumping effectively.
However, only about 50 percent of heart attack patients have this condition.
Dr. Troels Yndigegn, interventional cardiologist at Lund University in Sweden and author of the study, said: ‘For patients without signs of heart failure, this study finds that there is no evidence that routine use of beta-blockers is beneficial.’
Beta blockers are used to treat a number of other health problems, including angina – chest pain caused by the narrowing of the arteries that supply blood to the heart – and atrial fibrillation, an irregular heartbeat.
There is no evidence that the pills are ineffective treatments for these other heart conditions.