Mental Health Conditions and Nonpersistence of Direct Oral Anticoagulant Use in Patients With Incident Atrial Fibrillation: A Nationwide Cohort Study

[www.ahajournals.org]

susan d, very interesting!! This grandma would feel lost without you and some of the other regular posters on here! Your wealth of knowledge makes me feel safe in the middle of my topsy turvy world of afib & ectopics & medicines! I've responded to a few posts in the past because I value your familiarity of this health condition. I'll recap my afib history in one sentence...1st afib 2006, 2nd 2018, both self-converted after 6-8hrs. PACs, PVCs most of my 69yo life since I was 18. I'm currently on Flec 50mg twice daily; Eliquis 5mg twice daily; Metoprolol 37.5 once daily. PVCs driving me crazy (hence why I found article interesting!). After routine bloodwork yesterday my doc says I'm now diabetic and have high cholesterol. She wants to add Metformin and Lipitor. I'm worried all these meds will interact and make afib come back or make PVCs worse!!
Do you know where I could go to get more information on this? My doc says to ask my pharmacist but he's too busy. My cardiologist and EP said it's all trial & error because what works for one patient would be different for another. I'm sick & tired of constantly googling! Your input would be helpful on the subject of taking all these meds!! O I wish to be young again

If you want to check for interactions between all the drugs you're taking (or might take), drugs.com has an interaction checker you can use. Just enter all the drugs you're taking now plus the ones being recommended.

The flecainide, metoprolol and Eliquis are all fine. MANY people take that combination of drugs. Just be aware that almost any combination of drugs will show interactions using this tool, and that tends to unnecessarily alarm people. Even flecainide and metoprolol show a "moderate" interaction, but those two drugs are almost necessary together, so use caution in how you interpret the results.

Muntz- any pharmacist will speak and give consultations on drugs you currently take. Have you ever heard of a “mystery shopper”? The chain hires fake customers to visit retail stores and report back on the quality of service they witnessed. The pharmacy license board also have random mystery fake customers who check and see if the pharmacist offered a consultation when they picked up a Rx. If not their pharmacy license is under review. So unless you automatically check the box declining a pharmacist to give you drug consultation when you sign and pay, you should have no problem asking a pharmacist your questions. Being married to a pharmacist, I recommend asking on an off peak time though when the pharmacist isn’t swamped.

If you accidentally take an extra Rx dose by mistake, poison control is very useful. Their number is: +1 (800) 222-1222. I’ve called a couple of times and I am overseas currently and actually have the country’s poison control number where I’m visiting as a contact on my phone…in case a reader lives outside the states it’s useful to obtain the number for their country. It’s good to have.