Local Cardiologist Breaks Down Prescription Drugs In New Book
ST. CLOUD (WJON News) -- A longtime St. Cloud doctor is taking a deep dive into the success rates of prescription drugs.
Dr. Richard Aplin has written a book called "Prescription Poker: Playing the Odds with Medications".
He's calling it volume one with a focus on heart health because he is a cardiologist.
The book doesn't concentrate on treating symptoms, instead, the basis of the book is on medications that are designed to prevent a disaster like a heart attack or stroke.
Aplin uses a math formula called "The number needed to treat" to calculate the drugs' odds of success.
So, a drug company introduces a new medication and compares it to the old one. Let's say the medication is designed to make people live longer. One percent of the people died with the new drug, two percent died with the older drug. That means the risk reduction would be 50 percent. That's what you'd see in advertisements. That means of the 100 people treated, 99 will not live longer because of the medication, but one will. Then one has to decide is that enough to warrant the expense and side effects.
He says a number of patients receive little to no benefit for every one patient who gets the medication's intended result. Aplin says that is, in part, because the drug companies influence healthcare.
More and more, they are talking about the number needed to treat. But, there hasn't been a great emphasis on that because there's no upside for the pharmaceutical companies to tell you there's a one in 70 chance this is going to be successful to reach our goal. This is eye-opening stuff because you have to dive deep into the data.
Aplin says millions of people with no prior history of stroke or heart attack take an aspirin each day as preventive medication. But, only one out of 243 actually benefits from taking the aspirin daily. Therefore, aspirin is no longer a routine recommendation in doctors' offices.
Sixty-six percent of Americans take prescription drugs, spending $600 billion a year on them.
The book has chapters related to cholesterol, high blood pressure, stroke, calcium and the heart, and atrial fibrillation.
Aplin says he's already working on volume two, which will focus on the body and soul and will have chapters on osteoporosis and fish oils.
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