Beta blockers are routinely prescribed after a heart attack—but they are doing nothing for half the patients.
Heart attack survivors are being lulled into a false sense of security by the drugs, which are actually doing nothing to protect them from a second heart attack, say researchers from Lund University in Sweden.
Not only are the drugs ineffective, but they also come with a host of side effects ranging from fatigue, nausea and sexual dysfunction.
Only heart attack survivors with heart failure are helped by the drug, and that affects around half of patients.
The researchers had tracked around 5,000 heart attack survivors from 45 countries who had been given a beta blocker, which reduces levels of hormones, such as adrenaline, that increase heart rate and blood pressure.
Beta blockers were introduced in the 1960s and were heralded as a therapy that would stop a second heart attack.
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