Beta Blocker Risks May Outweigh Benefits, Study Warns

Though beta blockers did not change fatality or heart attack rates, their adverse effects raise questions about whether they should be prescribed.

While medications like Lopressor, Coreg and Toprol XL, known as beta blockers, have been a go-to treatment for heart attack patients for decades, research from a new study warns they may put patients in more danger while failing to prevent heart attacks.

According to findings published in the New England Journal of Medicine late last month, patients given beta-blockers after suffering a heart attack did not have lower rates of death, second heart attacks, or hospitalization from heart failure compared to those who were not taking beta-blockers.

Beta Blocker Health Risks

Beta-blockers are a class of drugs prescribed after a person suffers a heart attack. They block the effects of adrenaline to help reduce blood pressure, heart rate and lower the force of heart contractions.

However, beta-blockers have also been linked to potential side effects, including slowed heart rate, fatigue and dizziness, which can lead to adverse health effects if a person has other health conditions or is taking other medications.

A study published by Yale University researchers earlier this year warned that heart failure patients taking beta-blockers were significantly more likely to need a major or minor limb amputation, while a 2024 study warned that beta-blockers do not help lower the risk of having future heart attacks.

For the new study, a team of international researchers led by Dr. Valentin Fuster from the Mount Sinai Fuster Heart Hospital in New York, and the general director of the National Center for Cardiovascular Investigation in Madrid, conducted a randomized trial involving 8,400 patients in 109 hospitals in Spain and Italy.

They evaluated the effect of beta-blocker use in heart attack patients with left ventricular ejection fraction above 40%. Patients were randomized to either beta-blocker use or no beta-blockers.

Overall, the study found there was no benefit for patients to take beta-blockers when they had suffered an uncomplicated heart attack and still had normal heart function.

The death rate was similar in both groups of patients, 161 deaths in the beta-blocker group and 153 in the non-medication group. There were 143 follow-up heart attacks in both groups, and hospitalization rates were 39 among the beta-blocker group and 44 among the non-medication group.

Researchers determined that, despite the long-running practice of recommending beta-blockers for patients who suffer heart attacks, the data suggests beta blockers had “no effect on the incidence of death from any cause, reinfarction, or hospitalization for heart failure.”

They noted that advances in heart attack treatments, like the quick use of blood thinners or quickly placed stents after patients arrive at the hospital, have given doctors alternatives that may help reduce the long-standing trend of prescribing post-heart attack beta-blockers.

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