Recreational drug use triples the risk of recurrent cardiac crises

WEDNESDAY, Aug. 28, 2024 (HealthDay News) — Recreational drug users are three times more likely to experience repeated heart problems than non-users, a new study finds.

About 11 percent of patients admitted to intensive care units for heart disease had used recreational drugs, said researcher Dr. Raphael Mirailles, a doctor at the Lariboisiere Hospital in Paris.

Overall, “recreational drug use is associated with a tripling of the risk of a recurrent major cardiovascular event within one year,” said Mirailles.

For the study, researchers followed nearly 1,400 patients admitted to intensive care units in 39 hospitals across France for two weeks in April 2021.

Urine tests were used to determine drug use in all of them. The results showed that about 11% had used cannabis, opioids, cocaine, amphetamines or MDMA.

The patients were then followed for about a year to determine whether they had suffered another cardiac arrest, heart attack or stroke, the researchers said.

After one year of follow-up, approximately 7% of patients had suffered another severe cardiac emergency.

About 13 percent of drug users subsequently suffered a heart health emergency, compared with 6 percent of non-users, the researchers said.

Drug users were more likely to experience heart-related death (5.7% versus 4.5%), non-fatal heart attack (5.1% versus 1.3%), or stroke (1.9% versus 0.6%) than non-users.

MDMA was the drug most strongly associated with cardiac risk, with users just over four times more likely to have another cardiac event. Heroin and other opioids increased the risk by 3.6 times, and cannabis by 1.8 times.

The researchers will present these results on Wednesday at the annual meeting of the European Society of Cardiology in London. Results presented at medical meetings should be considered preliminary until they are published in a peer-reviewed journal.

Current guidelines do not recommend regular drug screening in patients requiring intensive care, Mirailles noted.

In view of these results, “systemic screening in intensive care should be considered,” he added in a press release about the meeting.

More information

The American Heart Association has more information on illegal drugs and heart disease.

SOURCE: European Society of Cardiology, press release, August 28, 2024