Posted on 11/26/2024 8:52:36 PM PST by ConservativeMind
All patients who have had a heart attack are typically treated using beta blockers. According to a study conducted earlier in 2024, this drug is unlikely to be needed for those heart patients who have normal pumping ability. Now a sub-study shows that there is also a risk that these patients will become depressed by the treatment.
Beta blockers are drugs that block the effects of adrenaline on the heart and have been used for decades as a basic treatment for all heart attack patients.
In recent years, their importance has started to be questioned as new, successful treatments have begun to be developed. This is mainly the case for heart attack patients whose heart has a normal pumping function even after the attack, i.e. people who do not suffer from heart failure.
The researchers wanted to look at the side effects of beta blockers, that is, whether they affect anxiety and depression levels. This is because older research and clinical experience suggests that beta blockers are linked to negative side effects such as depression, difficulty sleeping and nightmares.
Earlier this year, a major national study was conducted in Sweden, which found that those who received beta-blocking drugs were not protected from relapse or death compared to those who did not receive the drug. Leissner and his colleagues based their research on these findings and conducted a sub-study.
"Most doctors used to give beta blockers even to patients without heart failure, but as the evidence in favor of doing so is no longer so strong, this should be reconsidered. We could see that some of these patients appear to be more at risk of depression. If the drug doesn't make a difference to their heart, then they are taking it unnecessarily and at risk of becoming depressed," adds Leissner.
(Excerpt) Read more at medicalxpress.com ...
This has been talked about for a while.
Scott Adams took beta blockers for a short time and said they made him feel terrible and depressed.
Had a chest cramp at 51 a few years ago. Any exertion, fast walking , etc. would bring it on. After 4 weeks, doc says yep something wrong and 2 stents and 30 minutes I’m good to go, get the usual drugs. After 3 months I’m just weird, not depressed, but just didn’t care about anything. Scared to say anything to wife. Couldn’t figure it out, had new lease on life. Love my life and family. Happiest guy I know. Kept reading thinking it was statins until I read the beta blocker suppresses your fight or flight. I literally felt if someone robbed me, I wouldn’t care enough to fight back or bother running. I didn’t want to die but for the first time I didn’t care much either. Cut my beta blocker in half and right back to normal. I was not depressed but just could not care less about everything. Told doctor, she changed to time release with same dosage and it’s been great for 3 years. Just tossing that out there if any fellow freepers are dealing with the same thing.
I had a mild heart attack on. 16 Nov. Echocardiogram did not show any problems. Angiogram showed minor deposits on arteries entering the heart, but not enough to slow down blood flow. No other problems found.
They sent me home with a new prescription for plavix. Plavix is a blood thinner that is prescribed to help keep artery stents clean of deposits.
I think the hospital cardiologist saw heart attack and angiogram, and put them together to read stent, and did not read the angiogram report.
I called my personal cardiologist to let him know about the attack and the Prescriptions. The triage team called back an hour later, thanked me for letting them know about the attack, and said I should take the Plavix to help with the stent. “But I don’t have a stent”, I replied. The nurse who had called was astounded at that, and only then looked up the angiogram report.
I got a call an hour later from my cardiologist’s nurse saying that I SHOULD NOT take the Plavix.
There were way too many assumptions made about my after-attack treatment. People need to be aware of their treatments, research them, question them when something seems wrong, and take charge of their own selves.
My previous post was a long way to say that there were way too many assumptions made about my after-attack treatment. People need to be aware of their treatments, research them, question them when something seems wrong, and take charge of their own selves.
Both good comments.
beta blockers are some of the worst medications on the planet ...
I’ve been taking a beta blocker for almost twenty years, and my psychological health is outstanding.
My blood pressure and heart murmur require it.
This is a “duh” announcement. Depression side effect has been known for decades. Well maybe they finally reviewed it. Expect a new beta blocker which has “proven’ less side effect of depression to be released into market. Or new initiative to have the state run health organizations to start prescribing mild antidepressants...pardon the cynicism...but I feel our news cycle gets “manipulated a bit”...part of the “massaging” of people’s minds to get them to be excited about some new product.
Depression inducing medicine after a heart attack... What could go wrong.
Unnecessarily depressed?!?
Been taking beta bkocker for 25 years for HBP. Never noticed any such side effect. Never evwn got light headed. I tjought it curious that article never mentioned that most people who take them do so for HBP.
This is what I encourage everyone to do. A little sanity checking helps everyone involved.
You CAN know more than your care givers, as you described. People are human.
In my experience, doctors I have dealt with as a relative advocate or a patient advocate have all concurred with my sanity checks and prescribed a different medicine (ARB instead of ACE-I, for instance) or kept someone overnight in the hospital, among other incidents.
In reality, doctors’ hands can be tied by everyone's insurance companies. Doctors often want to do something different, but may only be able to if the patient makes a request or case for something different from what your insurance company mandates as “standard care.” If you give them the reasoning (argument), they can write that down and use that against your insurance company, to your benefit.
Doctors are not trying to hurt people, but insurance companies are trying to get the lowest cost for what they think is an “adequate” outcome. Note that “adequate” may never mean “ideal,” or “best.”
The study was strictly about inappropriately prescribed beta blockers for a condition that they can’t possibly help address, but were prescribed as standard practice before their ineffectiveness was known.
Beta blockers can help people with damaged hearts from heart attacks, but can’t help those without damage from a heart attack, it seems.
So what drugs are considered beta blockers? I’d really like to know because I take medications for high blood pressure.
May I ask what medication you were taking? The article didn’t mention which medications are considered beta blockers, and I honestly don’t know.
Thanks!
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