At Mercola.com, Dr. Joseph Mercola discusses beta blockers and research into their effectiveness. He writes:

A large trial tracked 8,438 heart attack patients, and the findings turned decades of cardiology practice on its head.1 Those who received beta-blockers after their heart attack fared no better than those who did not. Rates of death, repeat heart attack, and hospitalizations for heart failure were nearly identical. That means the drug class long considered a cornerstone of heart care offered no added protection in people whose hearts were still pumping normally.

Beta-blockers are drugs designed to slow your heart and reduce its workload. They’re prescribed widely after a heart attack to lower the chance of another one. Side effects often include fatigue, dizziness, depression, and sexual dysfunction, which many patients dismiss as “just part of getting older.”

Yet the new data suggest these side effects are being endured without any benefit in survival or long-term recovery for a large group of patients. Women, in particular, also face increased risks from these commonly prescribed drugs.2 Guidelines from the American College of Cardiology and the European Society of Cardiology still endorse beta-blockers for most people after a heart attack, regardless of heart function.

Those recommendations were built on studies from the 1970s and 1980s, but today most patients receive aggressive medical therapy, fundamentally changing outcomes. The evidence base has shifted, but the prescribing habits have not.

Read more here.