Digitalis Found to Be of Little Help in Treating Heart Failure

The largest clinical trial ever of a drug to treat heart failure has showed that digitalis is not especially dangerous, but that it is not particularly helpful either. Digitalis was first used 200 years ago and has been controversial because some physicians feared it could actually exacerbate heart problems and cause death. It is the most widely prescribed drug for heart failure.

More than 7,000 patients were enrolled in the study at 302 U.S. medical centers. The team reported in the Feb. 20 New England Journal of Medicine that the drug had no effect on survival after heart failure, but that it did reduce hospitalizations by 6%. That means that physicians would avoid only nine hospitalizations by treating 1,000 patients with digitalis for one year.