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Beta‐blockers in cardiovascular medicine: still alive and kicking
Author(s) -
McMurray John
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
prescriber
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.106
H-Index - 3
eISSN - 1931-2253
pISSN - 0959-6682
DOI - 10.1002/psb.1026
Subject(s) - medicine , beta (programming language) , cardiology , intensive care medicine , programming language , computer science
cine: first, observational data cannot be used to reliably ascertain the effects of a treatment and, second, only randomised, blinded placebo(or active-) controlled trials provide a robust estimate of the effects of treatment. The recent history of cardiovascular medicine is littered with examples of how observational data mislead. One of the best of these was the supposed ‘benefit’ of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) in reducing MI and stroke.1–3 When eventually conducted, the prospective randomised trials showed the opposite: HRT actually increased the risk of atherothrombotic events.1–3 Observational ‘benefits’ of vitamins C and E, folic acid and beta-carotene have been similarly discredited by randomised trials.1 More recently, observational studies have reported findings contrary to the randomised trials for statins, angiotensin-II receptor blockers (ARBs) and mineralocorticoid receptor antagonists in heart failure.4–6