Blocker heart drug ‘no use to thousands’

THOUSANDS of people given beta blockers after a heart attack get no benefit from them, a study claims.

Medical guidelines recommend them as they are needed by victims who also have heart failure.

But a University of Leeds team found up to 95% of heart attack patients who do not have heart failure also get them and they do not help them live longer.

They said it could mean the drugs are being overprescribed and causing the NHS unnecessary costs.

Study leader Dr Marlous Hall said: “There was no difference in survival rates between those who had beta blockers and those that had not.”