AHA Statement on Heart Failure and Polypharmacy

Heart failure (HF) is the leading diagnosis at hospital discharge among patients age ≥65 years. On average HF patients take 6.8 prescriptions a day and the majority also take over the counter and complimentary/alternative medications (CAM). Combined with the often complex dosing schedules for prescription medications, these regimens put older patients at high risk for drug-drug interactions, direct myocardial toxicity-or both.

In this Medical News Minute, Dr Bobby Lazzara reviews a recent scientific statement from the American Heart Association on pharmaceutical agents that may directly cause or exacerbate heart failure. The statement includes a compendium of agents from analgesics and anticancer meds to urologic and QT-interval prolonging medications that may cause or exacerbate heart failure. It also includes several tables of CAM that may be harmful in HF or have significant interactions with HF drugs.

Source: Page RL, O'Bryant CL, Cheng D, et al and on behalf of the American Heart Association Clinical Pharmacology and Heart Failure and Transplantation Committees of the Council on Clinical Cardiology; Council on Cardiovascular Surgery and Anesthesia; Council on Cardiovascular and Stroke Nursing; and Council on Quality of Care and Outcomes Research. Drugs That May Cause or Exacerbate Heart Failure: A Scientific Statement From the American Heart Association. Circulation.2016;134. http://dx.doi.org/10.1161/CIR.0000000000000426