Report Finds Many Patients Skip Prescribed Drugs After Heart Attack

Many patients who survive a heart attack don’t consistently take medications prescribed to prevent it from happening again, a large U.S. study suggests, writes Reuters Health.  Researchers asked 7,425 patients how often they took all the drugs physicians prescribed shortly after their heart attack, and about 2,150 of them confessed to following doctors’ orders only some of the time. While each patient may have unique motivations for deciding whether or not to take medications, the authors found it’s not uncommon for people who skip doses or fail to fill prescriptions to do so because they misunderstand the role of pills in preventing another heart attack, fear side effects, or lack funds to pay for drugs. The authors reviewed drug compliance for heart attack patients treated at 216 U.S. hospitals between April 2010 and May 2012.

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