Heartbeat drug ‘can raise risk of death’

A HEART drug taken by 250,000 Britons can hasten death, a study has found.

Those who take digoxin for an irregular heartbeat are almost a third more likely to die than those on other treatments, according to the research.

Patients with heart failure who take the drug are a fifth more likely to die, the study found. The researchers warned that all the evidence now pointed to there being ‘harm associated with the use of digoxin’.

They said that the pills, which are prescribed almost four million times a year in Britain, should be used ‘with great caution’ until further research confirmed the link.

The British Heart Foundation said the study, the largest of its kind, clearly showed that patients taking digoxin ‘have an increased risk of dying’. It said they should not stop taking it but speak to their GP if they were concerned.

The drug, which is extracted from foxgloves, was discovered by Edinburgh University graduate Dr William Withering in the late 18th century after he heard that a woman in Shropshire was using a secret herbal remedy to treat dropsy – the old name for heart failure.

It is still often prescribed when more modern drugs do not work. It strengthens and slows the heartbeat and is used in atrial fibrillation, in which the heart beats quickly and erratically, and congestive heart failure, in which a weak heart struggles to pump blood around the body.

It is not known how digoxin hastens death but it is easy to overdose on and is known to be poisonous when the dose is even slightly too high.

It also interferes with the heart’s electrical circuitry and may be more dangerous when given in combination with other drugs. In the new study, researchers at the J W Goethe University in Frankfurt examined 19 studies involving 300,000 patients with atrial fibrillation and congestive heart failure.

Those treated with digoxin were 21 per cent more likely to die. The risk was highest in atrial fibrillation, the European Heart Journal reported.

Lead researcher Stefan Hohnloser, a professor of cardiology, said that to prove the link medics need to run much more thorough and detailed trials than those done in the past.

However, with his analysis not the first to question the safety of digoxin, the studies that have been done ‘all point in the same direction: There is harm associated with the use of digoxin’. He added: ‘My feeling is that the time of digoxin, particularly as a heart rate-controlling drug in atrial fibrillation, is over.’

The professor, who now prescribes digoxin only in exceptional circumstances, added: ‘Everybody takes it for granted that you are not going to cause harm but in fact you do.’

Last night Dr Mike Knapton, associate medical director of the British Heart Foundation, described the research as important but urged people not to panic.

He said: ‘The advice to patients is that digoxin is still a recommended and useful drug. All drugs have benefits and side-effects – a lot of cancer drugs are very toxic.

‘Talk to your doctor to make sure you should be on digoxin and that the dose you are on is right and you are having the right monitoring.’

Drug safety watchdog the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency said it will examine the study and issue updated advice on digoxin if necessary.

‘Recommended and useful’