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Written By: IANS | Updated : September 16, 2013 3:07 PM IST
Doctors and researchers have come out with a single pill, called a polypill, to help patients with cardio-vascular diseases (CVD) to overcome the problem of taking too many medicines. According to the latest issue of the Journal of American Medical Association, a study was conducted on CVD patients in India and three European countries. The study, conducted between July 2010 and July 2011, showed 86.3 percent of people using polypill continued with it but only 64.7 percent of those who were on multiple medication went with the many-medicine theory. (Also read: Beat multiple heart diseases now with one pill!)
The study was conducted with the help of 28 Indian health-related institutions, including the All India Institute of Medical Sciences and Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research. The European Commission funded the study and it was planned by London's Imperial College.
The polypill is a combination of aspirin, lipid-lowering drug simvastatin and blood pressure lowering agents.
The study showed adherence to multiple medications was as low as 10 percent among Indian patients.
However, researchers said in case the polypill showed any side-effects, it has to be discontinued.
We spoke to Dr Nilesh Gautam, Interventional Cardiologist, Asian Heart Institute, about the drug and what this development means for Indian heart patients:
Q: What is the polypill?
Dr Gautam: Polypill is basically a combination of drugs. The one available in the Indian market contains three drugs one which is a blood thinner, one to lower cholesterol and one to reduce the blood pressure. This combination is what is recommended by the British and the American Heart Association.
Question: Is it truly a better option than the original multi-pill option?
Dr Gautam: Yes, it definitely is, and it is an extremely useful drug, because the compliance of the patient increases. By that I mean that if the patient has to take four drugs in a day, he/she is likely to forget to take one tablet or maybe two at some point in time. Since the polypill combines three or four drugs, the patient only has to take one drug and doesn t forget. This helps increase compliance which in turn increases the efficacy of the drug. Read more...
With inputs from IANS
