Heart Attack Patients Need Their Medication
October 2, 2006 by Lei
Filed under Diseases & Conditions
If your doctor has prescribed aspirin, beta blockers, or statins to treat your heart disease, have you been good about taking them? If not, be forewarned.
A new study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine has shown that heart patients who stopped taking these three drugs are three times more likely to die during the next year than patients who followed their prescribed regimen. One out of eight heart-attack patients, who were more likely to be older, single, and less educated, quit taking their meds within a month. Two of the main reasons patients don’t take their medication properly are:
- Cost
- Lack of explanation from their doctors
Even President Bill Clinton was a non-compliant heart patient:
Former President Clinton — a younger, married and well-educated patient — was prescribed a statin for high cholesterol when he left office. But he stopped taking it at some point. At age 58, he had to have quadruple bypass surgery because of severely clogged arteries that doctors said put him in danger of a heart attack.
When you get a new prescription from your doctor, make sure you understand what it’s for and what will happen if you miss a dose or more. Here are some questions to ask your doctor.
The Mercury News, October 2, 2006
