Stroke Patients Stop Taking Medications

Stroke patients who implicitly followed doctors orders generally understood why they were taking their medications and/or had adequate health insurance to pay for them.

However, one study recently published noted that 25% of stroke patients "stopped taking one or more of their stroke prevention medications within three months after their stroke." And patients who are either more severely disabled or without insurance are even more likely to discontinue medications.

Doctors need to be aware of this event so that they can properly handle medical incidences.

According to a lead researcher both patients and caregivers need clear streamlined instructions and follow-up on new risk factors.

Over the last 15 years, there has been very little improvement in the use of medical therapies that have been shown to improve outcomes in outpatients with heart failure. Certain medications such as ACE inhibitors and beta blockers need to be prescribed more. Why doctors are not prescribing them as much as they once did is a mystery. Perhaps doctors are getting tired of using the same old drugs in favor of the newer, more expensive ones.

Information taken from MedlinePlus, health information from the National Library of Medicine

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