Anti-depression drugs are the wrong medicine to treat heart failure
For heart failure patients, it’s a double dose of trouble.
First, the condition itself can lead to depression. Then, the drugs prescribed to treat depression can cause worsening heart problems.
And the kicker? These meds are typically useless.
A new study has found that handing out antidepressants to heart failure patients is about as effective as trying to start a fire with a wet match.
But the researchers did find something that does work.
And it’s so amazingly logical that you just might not believe the mainstream could ever come up with it.
If you or a loved one have been diagnosed with heart failure, you know it comes with so many meds you might think you’ve moved into a pharmacy.
On average, heart-failure patients take around 10 doses a day of 7 different Rx drugs.
And very often, that includes an antidepressant.
But here’s where things start to go off the rails. The most commonly handed out antidepressants, serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), have been long associated with serious side effects — many having to do with the heart itself.
And since we’ve known about this risk for some time now, you would think that these drugs would be the very last thing given to those with heart failure.
Yeah, you would think.
For a short sampling of what we know about antidepressants and the heart, take a look at these examples:
- Five years ago the FDA warned that the SSRI drug Celexa can cause changes in the “electrical activity of the heart,” triggering a potentially fatal heart rhythm.
- A study by Emory University, also done five years ago, found that antidepressants such as SSRIs can up your risk of heart disease and stroke by causing you to develop thicker arteries. And we’re talking about the carotid arteries — the ones in your neck that send blood to your brain.
- And 12 years ago researchers from the National Institutes of Health put out a warning that antidepressants (especially SSRIs) can cause numerous heart problems including arrhythmias. And those findings came from studies of people who didn’t have heart disease — so can you imagine what these drugs might do to someone suffering from heart failure? And of course, doctors will tell patients that it’s just because of their heart disease.
It’s absolutely unbelievable that these meds are still allowed to be prescribed to anyone, let alone heart patients.
And now we know that they don’t even work for them.
German researchers from the University Hospital Wurzburg who followed 372 patients with heart failure, found that a commonly-prescribed SSRI did nothing to help their depression.
And that finding shouldn’t have come as a surprise, since previous research on other SSRIs have found the exact same thing.
Head researcher Dr. Christiane Angermann said that it appears these drugs “may just not be the right medications for heart-failure patients.”
But guess what Dr. Angermann and her team said will relieve the depression that often comes along with this condition?
Helping patients to feel better by successfully managing their heart failure.
Wow, what a concept!
When we “treat heart failure very well,” she said, “depression improves.”
Dr. Angermann called the depression that accompanies heart failure as being directly related to the condition and not “responsive to drugs.” She noted that “a good approach” is to combine treatments such as “cognitive behavioral therapy and physical exercise.”
Look, heart failure patients are having enough drugs thrown at them already.
And the last thing they need is another med that can make their health problems worse and won’t do a thing to help them feel better.
Sources:
“Antidepressant no help to heart failure patients: study” HealthDay, June 28, 2016, nim.nih.gov
