Mixed Meds can Pack a deadly punch

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Mixed Meds Can Pack a Deadly Punch

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By Randy Dotinga

HealthScoutNews Reporter

 

FRIDAY, Feb. 7 (HealthScoutNews) -- Millions of Americans, especially

women, could be putting themselves at risk by taking combinations of

common medications with potentially deadly side effects.

 

 

 

Or, they might not be in much danger at all.

 

 

Those are the conflicting messages of a new study that examines how

many people get prescriptions for drugs that could work together to

create havoc in the heart.

 

 

" The next step that's really crucial is for us to better understand

what the real risks are associated with these drugs, " says study co-

author Lesley Curtis, a research associate with Duke University's

Clinical Research Institute.

 

 

Many drugs have the potential to disrupt the heart's rhythm and cause

a condition known as torsade de pointes. In some cases, especially

among susceptible people, the condition could make the heart thrash

uncontrollably and lead to death.

 

 

Some common drugs that could cause the condition include the

antibiotics clarithromycin, levofloxacin and erythromycin, and the

antidepressants Prozac and Zoloft, says Dr. Joe Selby, director of

research for the Kaiser Permanente Health Plan in Northern California.

 

 

Medical reference books let doctors know that the drugs could

potentially lengthen the " QT interval, " the time between beats when

the heart reboots itself electronically, Selby says.

 

 

To determine how often patients were prescribed the drugs, Curtis and

colleagues examined statistics compiled by a pharmaceutical benefits

company about prescriptions for nearly 5 million people.

 

 

The study appears in the new issue of the American Journal of

Medicine.

 

 

The researchers found that 23 percent of the subjects received

prescriptions for one or more of 50 drugs that could cause irregular

heartbeats. About 10 percent of these subjects were prescribed at

least two potentially risky drugs or one drug that could cause the

condition and another that could relieve it.

 

 

Half of all potentially risky prescriptions were for antidepressants,

and 64 percent of all the subjects were women, who are more likely to

suffer from depression.

 

 

Both Curtis and Selby says it's not clear how much danger the

subjects face by taking the drugs either by themselves or in

combination with others.

 

 

It's possible that many of the doctors who prescribe the drugs know

about the possible side effects and consider the potential benefits

to be worth the risk, Selby says. " We can't tell whether these

[prescriptions] are mistakes or conscious decisions, " he says.