RobThatsMe
Well-known member
Hi Everyone,
I just read this in HealthNews, and I know many of us are on Beta Blockers. Sounds like good news.
Hope everyone is in good spirits today!
Rob
Study: Heart Drug Side Effects Lower
Jul 17, 12:56 AM (ET)
By LINDSEY TANNER
CHICAGO (AP) - Beta blockers, drugs widely recommended for heart patients but vastly underused, are less likely than previously thought to cause depression, fatigue and sexual dysfunction, a study suggests.
Some doctors and patients may have shunned the lifesaving drugs because of the supposed side effects, but the new study should encourage wider use of beta blockers, the researchers said.
The researchers reviewed 15 studies involving more than 35,000 patients and found that the three symptoms are fairly common in heart disease patients regardless of whether they take beta blockers or not.
The study appears in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical Association.
Beta blockers are used to lower blood pressure and treat various heart problems. They work by slowing the heart rate. Previous research has shown that they can reduce heart attack survivors' risk of death by 20 percent or more.
Commonly prescribed beta blockers include propranolol, sold under the brand name Inderal; metoprolol, sold as Lopressor; and atenolol, sold as Tenormin.
Beta blockers could probably help many of the more than 1 million Americans who have heart attacks each year, according to American Heart Association spokesman Dr. Richard Pasternak. Studies, however, have suggested that one-third to one-half of eligible patients are not prescribed them.
Pasternak welcomed the study.
"Physicians and patients are sometimes unduly afraid of side effects, and I think this puts this in a correct perspective," he said.
A 1998 American Medical Association guide to high blood pressure lists fatigue and impotence among the most common side effects of beta blockers, and some studies have suggested all three symptoms occur frequently in beta blocker users.
While many beta blockers come with packaging that lists the three symptoms among possible side effects, study co-author Dr. Harlan Krumholz of Yale University said the warnings were based on older, very small studies and anecdotal reports that became the conventional wisdom over time.
"The notion was that they were common but there was no clear idea of how common," he said.
The researchers reviewed studies involving heart attack survivors or patients with heart failure or high blood pressure.
Depression was reported by 20.1 percent of beta blocker patients and 20.5 percent of patients given dummy pills; the difference was virtually nil.
Fatigue was slightly more common among beta blocker patients than placebo patients - 33.4 percent compared with 30.4 percent. That equals about 18 cases per 1,000 patients treated for a year with beta blockers.
Sexual dysfunction, including impotence, also was only slightly more common among drug patients, 21.6 percent versus 17.4 percent. That works out to about five cases per 1,000 patients treated for a year.
The researchers funded the study.
---
On the Net:
JAMA: http://jama.ama-assn.org
American Heart Association: http://www.americanheart.org
I just read this in HealthNews, and I know many of us are on Beta Blockers. Sounds like good news.
Hope everyone is in good spirits today!
Rob
Study: Heart Drug Side Effects Lower
Jul 17, 12:56 AM (ET)
By LINDSEY TANNER
CHICAGO (AP) - Beta blockers, drugs widely recommended for heart patients but vastly underused, are less likely than previously thought to cause depression, fatigue and sexual dysfunction, a study suggests.
Some doctors and patients may have shunned the lifesaving drugs because of the supposed side effects, but the new study should encourage wider use of beta blockers, the researchers said.
The researchers reviewed 15 studies involving more than 35,000 patients and found that the three symptoms are fairly common in heart disease patients regardless of whether they take beta blockers or not.
The study appears in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical Association.
Beta blockers are used to lower blood pressure and treat various heart problems. They work by slowing the heart rate. Previous research has shown that they can reduce heart attack survivors' risk of death by 20 percent or more.
Commonly prescribed beta blockers include propranolol, sold under the brand name Inderal; metoprolol, sold as Lopressor; and atenolol, sold as Tenormin.
Beta blockers could probably help many of the more than 1 million Americans who have heart attacks each year, according to American Heart Association spokesman Dr. Richard Pasternak. Studies, however, have suggested that one-third to one-half of eligible patients are not prescribed them.
Pasternak welcomed the study.
"Physicians and patients are sometimes unduly afraid of side effects, and I think this puts this in a correct perspective," he said.
A 1998 American Medical Association guide to high blood pressure lists fatigue and impotence among the most common side effects of beta blockers, and some studies have suggested all three symptoms occur frequently in beta blocker users.
While many beta blockers come with packaging that lists the three symptoms among possible side effects, study co-author Dr. Harlan Krumholz of Yale University said the warnings were based on older, very small studies and anecdotal reports that became the conventional wisdom over time.
"The notion was that they were common but there was no clear idea of how common," he said.
The researchers reviewed studies involving heart attack survivors or patients with heart failure or high blood pressure.
Depression was reported by 20.1 percent of beta blocker patients and 20.5 percent of patients given dummy pills; the difference was virtually nil.
Fatigue was slightly more common among beta blocker patients than placebo patients - 33.4 percent compared with 30.4 percent. That equals about 18 cases per 1,000 patients treated for a year with beta blockers.
Sexual dysfunction, including impotence, also was only slightly more common among drug patients, 21.6 percent versus 17.4 percent. That works out to about five cases per 1,000 patients treated for a year.
The researchers funded the study.
---
On the Net:
JAMA: http://jama.ama-assn.org
American Heart Association: http://www.americanheart.org
