Heart medicines
There are many different medicines that are prescribed within the treatment of heart disease. You may have to take several different medicines every day. Though this can sometimes be difficult to deal with, try to remember your doctor is aiming to keep you as well as possible and will try to find the best medicines for you with the fewest side effects.
Different types of medicines
There are lots of different medicines used to treat diseases of the heart, but they all belong to a few main groups, including:
- ACE inhibitors like ramipril
- angiotensin-II antagonists like losartan
- anti-arrhythmic medicines like amiodarone
- anticoagulant medicines like warfarin
- anti-platelet medicines like aspirin
- beta-blockers like bisoprolol
- calcium-channel blockers like amlodipine
- cholesterol-lowering medicines like simvastatin and other statins
- digoxin
- diuretics (water pills) like bendroflumethiazide
- nitrates like glyceryl trinitrate (GTN) tablets or spray [link]
The medicines within each group are similar, but may have minor variations in how they work.
Occasionally, two medicines may be combined into one tablet.
All this means that there is a wide variety of medicines to choose from to best meet your individual needs. Sometimes, the same medicine can even be used to treat a number of different conditions.
A single medicine may have several different names. Each one has an official name, called the ‘generic’ or ‘non-proprietary’ name. It may also be prescribed under one or more brand names, or ‘proprietary names’.
